How to get your phone to read articles aloud

Sometimes I can’t find my glasses and instead of reading an article on my phone, I’ll have my phone read it to me.  This is a great trick too if you are driving or outside exercising and have a pair of AirPods or headsets plugged in.  All it takes is one little adjustment to unleash the power of your phone to read to you whenever you want.

Here’s what you need to do for both iPhones and Androids.

 

How to have your iPhone read text to you

The following works on iOS 12 and later.

First, we need to adjust our settings:

• Click Settings
• Click Accessibility

 

 

• Click Spoken Content

 

• Slide the “Speak Screen” toggle to the right

 

Now, here’s how to have your iPhone read your screen:

1. Asking Siri – “Hey Siri, speak screen”
2. On any screen (article, email, etc..),
   1. Tap the top of your screen with two fingers and swipe down.  It’s a bit tricky, but you need to do it at the very top of your screen near where the camera is, and do it rapidly.  When it starts to speak to you, you’ll notice that there is a panel that is displayed.   Often I’ll change it from 1x to 1.5x so that Siri reads it to me quickly OR
   2. In the navigation bar where you type in the web address, you’ll see an AA at the beginning of the bar.  Click it and in the menu that pops up click “Listen to Page”

 

How to have your Samsung read text to you

Settings may vary depending on your Android phone’s manufacturer

• Install the Android Accessibility Suite app from the Play Store.
• Go to Settings, then Accessibility, then Installed Apps, and then Select to Speak.
• Enable the Select to Speak shortcut and choose the preferred keys or button to activate it.
• Open an app that has the text you want to read aloud and tap on the accessibility button.
• Choose the settings, voice, and language for the text-to-speech engine.
• Use the play, pause, skip, and select buttons to control the text reading.
• You can also adjust the settings for speech rate, language, and engine if needed.

 

 

How to have your Android read text to you

Settings may vary depending on your Android phone’s manufacturer

The following works on Android 11 and up.

First, let’s adjust our settings:

• Click Settings
• Click Accessibility and scroll down and tap Select to Speak
• Turn on Select to Speak shortcut

 

Now, here’s how to have your Android read your screen:

• To activate the “Select to Speak” shortcut, do a two-finger swipe-up
• Now you can either tap specific words on the screen or click the Play button which will then read everything on your screen.

 

More of my Quick Tips here