Do you want to know more about your phone and how to make your phone read to you? It’s not always convenient or practical to peek at your smartphone’s screen as you typically would. Still, with a few settings changes, you can access the most critical information without looking down at the display. Google Assistant can read your news, which is fantastic, and it just gained the ability to read items from Chrome aloud. But what if you would like to read additional texts aloud on your smartphone?
Here’s how to have your phone read the information you need aloud over the speaker or headphones.
Android
Google Assistant can’t read anything to you other than driving instructions and trivia questions, but it can readily manage incoming SMS messages. Check that hands-free accessibility is enabled in Settings (Apps & notifications, Assistants, then Say “Hey Google”), then say, “Read out my text messages,” to hear them read out.
Unfortunately, it only works for fresh messages that haven’t been read yet (maybe when you were driving), albeit you can respond. The Assistants used to be able to read aloud earlier messages, but for some inexplicable reason, that capability is no longer accessible. You may utilize the text to speech included in the mobile OS to have anything else read aloud.
From Settings, choose Accessibility, Text-to-Speech output, then customize your reading speed and pitch preferences. Return to the Accessibility panel and enable Select to Speak. Swipe up with two fingertips from the bottom of the screen when you need anything read aloud. Simply press the play button to get started.
The text-to-speech system has a few glitches and doesn’t have the most organic voice we’ve ever heard, but it can read out everything from emails to websites if you can’t look at the screen.
📱Android Options
Because Android is Android, multiple additional applications may help—the freemium Ping app includes texts, emails, and even messages from Facebook and WhatsApp and has a driving, exercising, & working modes. The free, commercial @Voice Aloud Readers, which run on top of Android’s text-to-speech system and can read aloud practically any document or webpage as long as the Android Share option is enabled, is another choice.
That should be plenty to keep you going, but remember that some applications provide a read-aloud capability. If you save online articles to Pocket and Instapaper to read later, both apps provide options to read saved articles out loud if you don’t want to see them on screen. Press the Headphone icon at the bottom of Pocket, and in Instapaper, tap your three dots (top right), then Speak.
iOS
On iOS, you may tell Siri to “read aloud my text messages” to hear (and respond to) unopened text messages. If it isn’t already, enable hands-free operations under Siri and Search in Settings. In contrast to Android, you may also have previous messages read out: “Hey Siri, read out my earlier texts.”
Siri used to be capable of reading emails aloud, but it now simply shows them on-screen—to go further, you must enable additional accessibility features. In Settings, go to Accessibility, Spoken Content, Speak Screens (to hear everything on the screen), or Speaking Selection. You may also customize the iOS text-to-speech engine here, from the speed of the voice to the pronunciation.
With Speak Screen enabled, swipe two fingers down from the top of the screen to hear the words on the screen read aloud (iOS shows playback and speed controls as well). Select any text on the screen to receive a new Speak option—it works everywhere, including Safari to Emails, and the reading will continue even if you go to and use other applications on your phone.
📱iOS Settings
If you activate the accessibility settings in the iOS Settings app, you can also use Siri to access them if you need to be hands-free (though you have to get the right app and page up on the screen first). Simply say, “Hey Siri, speak screen,” and you’ll receive the same effect as a two-finger downward swipe.
Because Apple is Apple, you don’t have the same selection of third-party reading applications as you have on Android because they don’t have the same amount of OS access. Speaking Email (basic features free or $5 per month) is an exception since it can tap into the Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo inboxes and read them to you.
If you’re using Instapaper or Pocket to store items from the webs that you won’t be able to read right away, you can utilize the text-to-speech tools built into all those apps to listen to the pages you’ve saved. In Instapaper, the option is hidden under the Share menu, while in Pocket, it is hidden behind the Headphones icon.
Google Assistant
Google Assistant now has the capability of reading an article on your Google Chrome browser. Simply enter the command, and the page will be read from top to bottom in a different player. You will be able to make various changes to the article’s readability. To activate the read command on Google Assistant, follow the instructions below.
➤Open Google Chrome and go to the article you wish to read aloud.
➤Bring up Google Assistant and tell it to “read it.”
➤The assistant will launch a player with the article open and begin reading it.
➤You may vary the reading speed and seek by using the seek bar.
➤You may shut that player, and it will continue to read that page.
Methods to Make Your Phone Read To You
Do you want Android to read your text aloud? The following are the top text-to-speech applications for Android. Using Android text-to-voice might be a terrific method to increase your productivity. Having your smartphone read text aloud as you work on other critical tasks might save you time. We’ll demonstrate how to utilize text-to-speech on your Android phone. There are various options for having Android read text aloud to you.
📱Google Assistant Reads Aloud
Until recently, Google Assistant wasn’t very good at reading text aloud. I couldn’t read your messages, and even then, just the five more recent ones. Conversely, Google introduced an update in March 2020 that enables Android to read web pages aloud.
If you do not yet have Google Assistant installed, learn how to use it first. It’s, therefore, quite simple to get Google Assistant can read text aloud. Simply start Google Assistant (by voice command and shortcut gesture) to begin hearing the text read aloud.
To have Google Assistant read a web page, go to the page you wish to read first. Then, using the Read It command, activate the text-to-speech mechanism. The assistant will indicate that it intends to read the content to you before beginning to read. That’s all it takes—-as it reads, the Assistant will highlight words in blue.
As previously said, this also works with text messages. Keep asking Google Assistant to read your text messages aloud by saying Hey, Google, read my messages. Google Assistant can read your unread messages if you have any new ones. If you like, you can even react with your voice. However, it is still very limited in what it can achieve since it will not read previous texts.
📱Make Use of Android’s Text-to-Speech Feature
You may utilize your phone’s native text-to-speech capability if you don’t want to use Google Assistant to read text aloud. This is quite simple to set up and utilize, simply exploring a few menus. It’s an accessibility feature developed for those with low or no vision. Nevertheless, it is useful for getting Android to read text loudly to you.
Here’s what you need to do to get text-to-speech working:
➤Select Accessibility > Text-to-Speech from the menu.
➤This route and the available choices may differ based on your Android version and manufacturer. Users of Samsung devices, for example, may pick between Google’s text-to-speech capability and Samsung’s.
➤Examine the choices and modify them as necessary. To adjust its settings, use the Settings gear. On the homepage, you may change the speech pace and pitch and listen to a sample.
➤Return to the main Accessible panel and toggle Select to Speak on.
Return to your home screen and see an additional icon in the bottom right corner. This seems to be a little human within a circle. That’s your text-to-speech helper, which can read any word on the screen aloud. It’s easy to utilize text-to-speech; here’s how:
➤Go to the app or website you want Android to read aloud.
➤Select the new icon (it will turn blue).
➤Choose the text to be read aloud by Android.
Android will now read your content aloud. Unfortunately, it is unlikely to sound as well as Google Assistant. But, at the very least, it can read more than your past five texts.
📱Text-to-Speech Apps from Third Parties
If none of the above alternatives suit you, several third-party applications for Android enable text to voice. However, in many circumstances, these are not worthwhile. This is because many of them depend on Google Assistant to read text aloud, which means they can’t provide much more than the built-in functions.
Ways to Read Better and Faster
Reading on the phone is not as pleasant as reading on paper, a laptop, or a computer. However, the phone is with us all day. As a result, mastering the skill of phone reading is critical. When it comes to mobile phones, there are strategies to improve your reading faster and better.
📖Maintain the Reading Material in the center.
This technique was taught to me by a dear friend who attended our Nagpur training. We do not have the option of modifying the location of the text in books. However, it is doable on computers and mobile phones. For example, if this is the final line on the screen, move the screen so that the lines you are reading are in the center of the screen. This will make reading easier on your eyes.
To maintain consistent text center alignment, your finger movement must be increased. This enhanced finger mobility will keep you aware as you read.
📖Increase the brightness of the screen.
It may seem obvious, but check the screen brightness of the phones surrounding you. Many users lower the brightness to increase battery life. However, doing so reduces your phone’s battery life at the price of your vision. Increase the brightness to make reading more pleasant for your eyes.
📖Expand the Font Size
Increase the size of your reading material’s font. Even the font size of Whatsapp messages may be raised (if you don’t know how to look it up). A good rule of thumb is to increase the font size until no more than five words are visible in one line of WhatsApp. (For those who attended my session, adjust the font size till you can read the full sentence in one chunk.)
📖Use a variety of reading applications.
There are several applications available to help you with your reading. For reading books, I use Kindle, and for reading blogs, I use Instapaper. The nicest aspect about these programs is that they sync with your computer software, allowing you to continue reading on your computer whenever convenient.
So those are the four methods for reading better and faster on mobile devices. Please remember to use them. If you have a reading method on your phone that helps you read better and quicker and is not included above.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a program that can read my screen?
Using a screen reader, you may read books, periodicals, and news stories and listen to music on Google Play. Using the TalkBack screen reader, you may read books, periodicals, and news items on Google Play and listen to music. Learn how to activate TalkBack.
Is there an app that reads text aloud?
The text will be read aloud by Speechify. Loved ones’ letters? Scanning them and converting them to audible notes. Install the Safari plugin to listen to any page you visit.
How can I get my phone to read aloud words?
Ask Google Assistant to read your text messages aloud by saying Hi, Google, read my messages. Google Assistant will read your unread messages if you have any new ones. If you like, you can even react with your voice.
How can I activate the read-aloud feature?
Only Office 2019, Office 2021, & Microsoft 365 support Read Aloud. Select Read Aloud from the Review tab. Select Play in the controls to play Read Aloud. Select Pause to pause Read Aloud.
Why isn’t my read-aloud working?
Right-click the Start button and choose Properties (lower-left corner). Choose Apps and Features. Right-click on Microsoft Office software and pick Change, followed by Online Repair. To proceed, click Repair and continue the on-screen instructions.
Can the iPhone read a PDF aloud?
On an iPhone, learn how to read PDFs aloud. Navigate to Settings and then to the Accessibility tab. Select Spoken Content, then toggle the Speak Selection Switch on. Open the PDF in your PDF viewer.
Final Words
Have you figured out how to get your phone to read to you? These were the greatest methods for making your phone read text aloud without the need for a third-party app. While Google Assistant might be useful, having it read web pages can easily allow you to reduce screen time. Now that we’ve taught you how to have your phone read to you, you may enjoy having your phone read to you from anywhere. Do you want to know best headset mic for streaming? Click Here!
