* This article is from our Tip of the Day newsletter. Sign Up. *
If you find it more convenient to listen to some text on your iPhone or iPad rather than read it, you can easily enable that capability. You might, for example, want your device to read a web page, ebook, or another document to you while you perform household chores. Here’s how to use text-to-speech on iPhone or iPad.
Why You’ll Love This Tip:
- Listen to web articles or books when you’re busy with other tasks.
- Have your iPhone or iPad read to you if you can’t see the screen well.
How to Use Text-to-Speech on iPhone
System Requirements
This tip works on iPhones running iOS 16 or newer. Learn how to update to the latest operating system.
Apple made sure that the iPhone comes with a broad array of built-in accessibility features so that anyone can use it. Text-to-speech is just one of these accessibility options. You can use this tool to have your iPhone read aloud to you. For more iPhone accessibility tips and tricks, be sure to sign up for our free Tip of the Day newsletter. Now, here’s how to set up text-to-speech on iPhone:
- Open the Settings app, and tap Accessibility.
![screenshot of iphone settings with accessibility circled in red]()
- Tap Spoken Content.
![screenshot of iphone settings with spoken content option circled in red]()
- Tap the toggle next to Speak Selection to enable or disable it.
![sceenshot of iphone text to speech settings with speak selection circled in red]()
- Highlight Content will highlight each word as it is spoken.
![sceenshot of iphone text to speech settings with highlight content circled in red]()
- You can tap Voices to choose a different computer-generated voice.
![sceenshot of iphone text to speech settings with voices circled in red]()
- You can also select your Default Language.
![sceenshot of iphone text to speech settings with default language circled in red]()
- If you change your Default Language, you can turn the toggle next to Detect Languages off. This will let your iPhone read in other languages instead of translating to your default language.
![sceenshot of iphone text to speech settings with detect languages toggle circled in red]()
- The Speaking Rate slider allows you to adjust how fast or slow the text-to-speech voice reads.
![sceenshot of iphone text to speech settings with speech rate bar circled in red]()
- Lastly, you can add pronunciations, if the text-to-speech voice is not pronouncing something correctly.
![sceenshot of iphone text to speech settings with pronunciations circled in red]()
- To use text-to-speech, tap and hold some text to highlight it.
![screenshot of web article with paragraph circled in red, indicating to tap and hold the text]()
- Tap the Speak button, and your iPhone will begin reading the text aloud.
![screenshot of web article with text highlighted and speak option circled in red]()
- You can tap the highlighted text and tap Pause to stop the reading at any time.
![screenshot of web article with text highlighted and pause option circled in red]()
Now, you can use text-to-speech to have your iPhone or iPad read aloud to you if you have trouble reading everything on your screen, or while you’re doing chores, cooking, or going for a walk.
