You Can Make Your Smartphone Read Aloud to You
Why are you reading this article? Wait, don’t leave – I mean, why are you reading this article? Most likely, you visited this article from your smartphone, like many of us. Whether you have an iPhone or Android, you can have your phone read text aloud so you don’t have to read it yourself anymore.
This feature is called text-to-speech or TTS. TTS highlights text or parts of your screen and reads those parts aloud. This is a great accessibility feature on its own, but also useful for anyone who wants their phone to read to them. TTS is a fun option, it’s not hard to activate, but it’s a bit hidden.
Text-to-speech on Android
I’m using a Pixel for this demo, so your settings may vary slightly depending on your device and Android version. You can find TTS on Android under Settings > Accessibility > Select to Speak . Here, turn on the toggle next to “Choose a shortcut for a conversation.” Select “Allow” in the pop-up window, then click “Got it” to close the window. You will now see a tiny label on your phone’s display. When you click on it, a menu appears: first you’ll see a play button and a big red stop button along with an arrow. Tap the arrow and you’ll see an expanded list of controls, including a minus button (slow down), skip buttons to move between screen sections for reading, and a plus button (speed up).
To actually use Select to Speak, be sure to tap the shortcut and then swipe over the text you want to read. You’ll see a green box hovering over this text: when you release the button, Speak will begin reading. You can use the extended control bar to control this speech, or press the red stop button to stop the phone reading. You can also sign out of the app or page you chose to prevent Android from reading.
If you go back to the “Speech Selection” settings page, you can click “Settings” to find two additional controls: “Read in background” which will continue reading even if you leave the page, and “Read text in images” that tries to read text on images or in your camera’s viewfinder. Both of these features are marked as experimental, so temper your expectations.
Text-to-speech on iOS
On your iPhone, you’ll find the TTS options under Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content . You have two main options here: you can choose Speak Highlight, which lets you highlight specific text you want to read aloud, or Speak Screen, which reads the entire contents of the screen when you swipe down from the top with two fingers. Speak Screen is most reminiscent of the TTS you’ll find on Android.
When you swipe down with two fingers to activate this feature, your iPhone will begin to read everything on the screen. You’ll also see a similar controller: tap the hand icon and you can tap different places on the screen to dictate what should be read aloud. The skip buttons allow you to switch between different sections on the screen, and the play/pause buttons do what you’d expect them to do. You can also control how fast your iPhone reads aloud from this menu.
You can make this controller always appear on the screen by choosing Speech Controller > Show Controller .
However, I prefer to leave Speak Selection enabled. In this case, whenever you highlight text on iOS, whether it’s an iMessage from a friend or an excerpt from an article, you’ll see a new Speak option. Tap it and your iPhone will read the selected text out loud. In most cases, the menu doesn’t disappear, so you can tap on the new “Pause” option that appears to make your iPhone stop talking. If you’re reading text messages, this option doesn’t appear, so you’ll need to exit the Messages app to have your iPhone stop talking instead.
Regardless of which option you use, the Spoken Content settings menu offers a lot of customization: you can highlight words as you read them to make them easier to track; in Typing Feedback, you can choose to have your iPhone automatically read what you type out loud, including single characters; you can dive into “Voices” to choose from a series of different voices to hear when your iPhone is reading; you can choose the speed at which your iPhone reads; and you can correct the pronunciation of words and phrases on your iPhone from Pronunciation.
Rely on your digital assistant to read new messages
If all you want is your phone to read new messages, you can rely on Siri or Google Assistant. In most cases, you can just ask Siri or Google Assistant to read your latest messages: on an iPhone, you just need to make sure your phone is unlocked. On Android, you need to make sure the Google app has permission to use your notifications. To do this, go to Settings > Apps > See all apps > Google > Notifications .