--- title: Spritz Samsung Smartphone App Turns You into a Speed Reader description: Could smartphones actually help our reading skills? canonical: https://time.com/12392/this-app-can-help-you-read-up-to-1000-words-a-minute/ author: Kyle Chayka article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-04T18:31:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:08.545Z og:title: Spritz Samsung Smartphone App Turns You into a Speed Reader og:description: Could smartphones actually help our reading skills? og:url: https://time.com/12392/this-app-can-help-you-read-up-to-1000-words-a-minute/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt241a509f559db3fd/698683d9cd684803610936cd/books.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: books og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Spritz Samsung Smartphone App Turns You into a Speed Reader twitter:description: Could smartphones actually help our reading skills? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt241a509f559db3fd/698683d9cd684803610936cd/books.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This App Can Help You Read Up to 1,000 Words a Minute ## Video: Top 5 Domestic Grossing Young Adult Novel Film Adaptations [Watch (HLS stream): Top 5 Domestic Grossing Young Adult Novel Film Adaptations](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GOoxcojn.m3u8) (2:12)  _Published 2015-06-21. Top 5 Domestic Grossing Young Adult Novel Film Adaptations_ by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Mar 4, 2014 6:31 PM UTC  Abhi Sharma—Flickr by [Kyle Chayka](https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/) ## Kyle Chayka Mar 4, 2014 6:31 PM UTC Who says the Internet is making us less effective readers? [Spritz](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/27/spritz-reading%5Fn%5F4865756.html?utm%5Fcontent=buffer5bf3e&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=twitter.com&utm%5Fcampaign=buffer), a new app that’s being released on Samsung devices, is devoted to turning you into a super-powered book devourer, conquering novels in a single bound (or subway ride). Spritz works by showing you a sentence one word at a time, displaying the words in quick succession. Then, the words speed up, and you’re forced to grasp their meaning much faster. 250 words per minute is easy, but 500 is like looking at a page through a strobe light. The highest setting of 1,000 words per minute would let you read _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone_ in just [77 minutes](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/27/spritz-reading%5Fn%5F4865756.html?utm%5Fcontent=buffer5bf3e&utm%5Fmedium=social&utm%5Fsource=twitter.com&utm%5Fcampaign=buffer). The Bible would still take 13 hours, however. Spritz’s technology does much more than just run through words. It positions the different words around their central letters, aligning them so they’re easier for the eye to digest. It’s subtle, but it makes a big difference. Maybe now we can finally digest more than 140 characters? ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/12392/this-app-can-help-you-read-up-to-1000-words-a-minute/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/12392/this-app-can-help-you-read-up-to-1000-words-a-minute/"},"headline":"This App Can Help You Read Up to 1,000 Words a Minute","datePublished":"2014-03-04T18:31:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:08.545Z","description":"Could smartphones actually help our reading skills?","url":"https://time.com/12392/this-app-can-help-you-read-up-to-1000-words-a-minute/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Technology","apps","Books","reading"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt241a509f559db3fd/698683d9cd684803610936cd/books.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Kyle Chayka","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/kyle-chayka/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt241a509f559db3fd/698683d9cd684803610936cd/books.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"books","caption":"","creditText":"Abhi Sharma—Flickr","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/12392/this-app-can-help-you-read-up-to-1000-words-a-minute/","name":"This App Can Help You Read Up to 1,000 Words a Minute"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Top 5 Domestic Grossing Young Adult Novel Film Adaptations","description":"Top 5 Domestic Grossing Young Adult Novel Film Adaptations","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GOoxcojn/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-06-21T18:14:48.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GOoxcojn.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/12392/this-app-can-help-you-read-up-to-1000-words-a-minute/","duration":"PT2M12S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/12392/this-app-can-help-you-read-up-to-1000-words-a-minute/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```