Introducing Version 12

Hi, I'm John, the founder of Ducky Software Inc.

Today we shipped version 12 of Second Voice, by far our largest update ever, with the biggest changes we have ever made. I could have done this in the style of a press release, and no doubt any business major would have told me to do just that, but given our app is something so personal that affects so many, I feel the need to discuss this in a personal manner. So, hence writing this in such a casual style.

We launched some really exciting new features today, and with that, there are some elephants in the room I have to address. First of all, the purchase of Premium is now going to be done entirely through the iOS or iPadOS apps, with no involvement of the myDuck portal. This means a simpler experience for you and removes the need for accounts. All billing will now be handled directly through Apple, and you will subscribe to Second Voice the same way you would any other app. Just tap on the upgrade button and use Face ID or Touch ID to complete your purchase.

If you'd like to cancel your subscription, you can go to the settings menu on your iPhone through your Apple Account. We'd also love it if you wrote to hello@duckysoftware.com to tell us why. Enterprise users can subscribe to devices individually or enroll devices en masse via the Apple Business Manager tool.

This announcement also, predictably, spells the end for the myDuck portal, which, while great, was reaching the end of the line as to what we could provide you in the app with a web portal sitting in the way. We look forward to bringing you even more unique experiences and new technology throughout Second Voice, one of which we are launching today, Smart Phrases.

This is a really cool tool that's able to use words, or a word along with some of the context you provide, and turn it into a full sentence automatically. For example, "bathroom" might show options such as "Where is the bathroom?" if you're in a restaurant, or "I'm going to the bathroom" if you're at home.

We're also super excited to bring you Smart Phrases context, available through the settings menu of Second Voice, which allows you to set up certain words as triggers for longer potential sentences with more information that you provide. For example, typing in "Address" might show options like "I live at 123 Main Street" or "My address is 123 Main Street."

It's important to note that all of this data stays on device and does not interact with Apple's servers or our own. It was also very important to us that users didn't feel that this new feature was trying to replace them or their sense of expression. That is why Smart Phrases is in a completely separate tab to your main communication boards, which you can now switch between freely using the new menu at the bottom of the app. The "Speak" tab, as it is now called, should remain almost entirely intact, with all of your prompts there as before.

Smart Phrases is a Premium feature and is available with the rest of the Second Voice Premium features at C$9.99 per month. We want to be very upfront with you when we say our job is to give you the best experience possible and the best voice possible. This is something we stand behind 100 percent and has guided us since the very start of this project when I was 9 years old, but we are also a business, and that means that sometimes exciting new or experimental features like this may need to be locked to Premium from time to time.

We are really excited about this future and sincerely hope you'll give it a try, and our commitment to offering free Premium to those who genuinely cannot afford it still stands. You can always submit a request for free Premium to us via email, and we will do our best to accommodate your needs. Be advised that we may ask for financial documents or proof of income.

We have also moved a couple of themes to Premium, as we felt it was an area we could add value for a Premium subscriber without taking away anything overly significant from free users. Teal and green will remain available as free themes, and we are working to improve tablet prompts as well.

The application also got a visual update using Apple's new liquid glass material and design language to provide a more expressive feel.

Lastly, some users may have noticed that Google Cloud-based models are temporarily unavailable to Premium users. We are incredibly grateful for Google's support and are proud to be part of the Google for Startups Cloud Program, as is displayed prominently and proudly on our website. We intend to ship revised versions of Google Cloud speech models very soon.

So that's the new version of Second Voice. A new expressive design, a new Smart Phrases feature, billing directly in the app, and so much more.

Lastly, I'd like to take one moment to touch on Android. We understand the Android version of the app might be feeling a little bit dated. As an Android user myself, supporting this platform will continue to be a priority. Unfortunately, when most of your users are on iOS or other Apple platforms, they tend to get the coolest new features first, but we fully intend to bring almost everything talked about today to Android in the future, along with a new Material 3 Expressive design.

Thank you.

All the best,
John