How To Use Speak Selection
First of all, you have to select the text you want read out, which can be a little tricky until you get used to it.
If you want to select all of the text, which you would probably want to do, tap on a word, hold it for a second, then release to get an option to select all of the text. If you chose Select All, you will then have an option to Speak the text.
If you only want to select a short piece of text, for example a paragraph on a web site, double-tap on a word, then release to highlight it. You can then ‘drag’ the handles to select a specific section of the text.
Once you have selected the text you will have an option to read it out, using your preferred voice. If you don’t get any sound, make sure you have the volume control on your iPad / iPhone turned up!
Have Your Iphone Highlight Text As It Speaks Aloud
Tap the Highlight Content option within the Spoken Content settings to customize how highlighting works as your iPhone speaks out text aloud.
You can set your iPhone to highlight individual words or sentences only, change the highlight style , and adjust the highlight color for words and sentences. Try out different combinations to determine what works for you the best.
Fix #: Reboot Your Iphone
Voice-to-Text isnt a new feature on iOS 16 but theres still a chance that the tool may misbehave on a device for any number of reasons. If you were able to use dictation before and the feature has only started causing problems lately, then you can try rebooting your device to help fix it. You can restart your iPhone by following these instructions:
- On iPhones with Face ID : Press and hold the Side button and either of the Volume buttons until you see the Power-off slider screen. When the slider appears, drag it to the right to turn off your iPhone. After your iPhone is completely shut down, wait for 30 seconds and then press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo shows.
- On iPhones with Touch ID : Press and hold the Side button until you see the Power-off slider screen. When the slider appears, drag it to the right to turn off your iPhone. After your iPhone is completely shut down, wait for 30 seconds and then press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo shows.
After a successful restart, you can now check if Voice-to-Text works as shown in fix #2.
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Fix #: Switch To Another Dictation Language
If the primary language you use for dictation is English, then theres a chance that your iPhone isnt able to detect your version of the language. Many users have reported that they managed to make Voice-to-Text work on their iPhones when they switched from English to English or English . If youre currently using English or another version of the language, you can change it to another version by opening the Settings app and going to General> Keyboard> Add New Keyboard.
In the list that appears, select a language you may be confirmable with. If your primary language is English, you can try switching to English , English , or one from your own region.
Once selected, go back to the Keyboards screen and select Dictation Languages.
Here, make sure the newly added language is selected so that your voice is detected by your iPhone. If not, tap on the unselected language from this list and make sure its marked with a tick mark.
You can also use this fix to add a language other than English to use with Voice-to-Text.
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Want To Know More About Semantix Voice

Speak4Me
This application offers three simple tabs: the recordings you have previously saved one for the actual speech output and the final one for settings. You can adjust the voice speed rate and pitch, choosing from a wide variety of voices and a considerable range of languages.
You can share the audio recordings via social messaging applications like Messenger or WhatsApp, or save them for later use.
Speak
This app is very responsive and has a user-friendly interface that enables you to learn the applicationâs design in minutes. Use the centre box to type words and then tap the Speak button to play them. Speak4Me applications let you change the audio pitch and speed using the controls just under the Talk button.
Speak app allows you to export your entire file history as single audio recordings or as a CSV file. There is a good selection of voices and languages ââavailable. Unfortunately, thereâs no way to import web pages or books, so you have to copy and paste written content from an e-book or a web page.
Also, there isnât an in-app function to use during a phone call instead, you can use a speakerphone during a call.
IOS Native Text-to-Speech
If you want, you will also be able to read the content as you type, and you can turn on Long Press to Speak to help you find the right word to use in a text message.
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Change The Speech Settings
Adjust any of the following:
Speak Selection: To hear text you selected, tap the Speak button.
Speak Screen: To hear the entire screen, swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen.
Speech Controller: Show the controller for quick access to Speak Screen and Speak on Touch.
Highlight Content: iPhone can highlight words, sentences, or both as theyre spoken. You can change the highlight color and style.
Typing Feedback: You can configure typing feedback for the onscreen and external keyboards and choose to have iPhone speak each character, entire words, auto-corrections, auto-capitalizations, and typing predictions.
To hear typing predictions, you also need to go to Settings > General > Keyboards, then turn on Predictive.
Voices: Choose a voice and dialect.
Speaking Rate: Drag the slider.
Pronunciations: Dictate or spell out how you want certain phrases to be spoken.
Enabling Language Voices In The Speak News App
Speak News is an RSS news feed reader with text-to-speech for iPhone and iPad. .
To enable text-to-speech voices for other languages in the Speak News app, tap the Settings button with the gear icon.
The Speak News Settings view appears.
Scroll down and tap to open Voice Library Configuration in the Speech Behavior section.
In the Voice Library Configuration view, enable the voices you wish to use in the Speak News app.
The set of selected voices that are in the appropriate language will be used for stories of a given language. Each story will be read in the next appropriate language from the voice library. If a story contains multiple languages, the dominant language is used to select an appropriate voice.
Tap Edit in the Voice Library view to change the order of voices in the library. Drag items using the drag control on the right side of each item in the table.
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Have The Speech Controller Always Show Up On Screen
You also can get the Speech Controller overlay to always stay on the screen. To do that, tap the Speech Controller option and activate the switch next to Show Controller.
You can then expand the Speak Controller and tap the Play icon to get your iPhone to start speaking whatevers on the screen. Again, use the Previous and Next icons to move between lines and the Speed icon to increase or decrease the speed. Dont forget to activate Speak on Touch to get the device to read whatever you touch.
By default, long-pressing the collapsed Speech Controller icon prompts your iPhone to start speaking text aloud, while double-tapping the icon switches it to Speak on Touch mode. You can change that using the Long Press and Double Tap options at the bottom of the Speech Controller screen.
Additionally, you can change the opacity of the Speech Controller by tapping Idle Opacity. Decreasing the value will make it less intrusive.
Using Text To Speech On Iphone And Ipad
Getting your device to read selected text is quite simple, heres all you need to do on any iOS or ipadOS version:
Once speech has started the Speak button turns to Pause, making it easy to halt and resume any spoken text.
A great way to test this feature out yourself is in Safari, like when youre reading this very article. Just select some text and use the Speak tool. Or you can read the entire article if you select all the text on a webpage!
Youll notice the voice is that of Siris, which depending on the version of iOS you have is either a voice you set for Siri, or the same voice of Samantha in Mac OS X which you can add yourself if you havent done so yet for Mac users.
With speech enabled, speaking text is available in just about any app as long as you can select the text. This works perfectly in Safari, Notes, Instapaper, Pocket, and even iBooks if you want stories read to you, though youll have to select all the text again on each page when its finished reading the current page. Preferably a future version of iBooks will just include the speech engine natively and we wont have to do that. Anyway, enjoy!
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How To Use Speak Screen
Speak Screen is particularly useful as a tool for reading eBooks and long paragraphs of text. Note that it doesn’t highlight each word as it is spoken. In most apps, e.g. the Kindle app, Speak Screen will automatically move on to the next screen and carry on reading until you press the Stop Button.
It can be a little tricky to get started. Use a two-fingered flick down from the top of the screen. If you have a case that extends over the edge of the display, you may have to take the case off to get your fingers close enough to the edge for the two finger flick.
Speech Controller allows quick access to Speak Screen and negates the need for the two finger flick down from the top of the screen. If you expand the controller bar and press on the finger icon, you can tap or drag anywhere on the screen to hear the content under your finger.
Have Your Iphone Speak Text On A Screen
You can also have your iPhone read the entire screen aloud by activating the toggle next to Speak Screen. You can then swipe down from the top of the screen with two fingers, and the device will begin to speak whatevers on the screen, starting from the top. Note that this does not work on the Lock Screen, Home Screen, and Control Center.
Use the playback controls on the Speech Controller to speed up or slow down the read speed, skip lines and sentences, and pause reading. You can also tap the Speak on Touch icon and tap any phrase or sentence to get your iPhone to start reading it. If you do nothing, the Speech Controller will disappear.
With the Speak Screen option enabled, you can also get Siri to start speaking by saying, Hey Siri, Speak Screen. Learn how to set up and configure Siri on iPhone.
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Make The Most Out Of Your Tts Iphone 14 Experience With Speechify
Speechify is the perfect solution for anyone looking for more out of text to speech technology. Besides offering numerous AI narrators that work in various languages, it has a special feature that sets it apart from other TTS apps. Its optical character recognition tool allows you to snap of text and the app will understand and read it aloud.
All this makes Speechify the number-one-rated text to speech app on the App Store. With thousands of downloads and satisfied users, its the only real way to turn any text into an audio file or your personal podcast. All you have to do is go to the App Store and type Speechify into it to download and enjoy the app on your brand-new iPhone 14.
Ios 16 Voice To Text Not Working How To Fix

Apples Dictation tool is quite efficient when it comes to converting your voice into text and can be used across any app or screen youre on your iPhone. With iOS 16, you can now use dictation as well as the on-screen keyboard when sending messages, taking notes, or searching for something inside apps. Additionally, dictation on iOS 16 is also enabled with automatic punctuation, meaning your iPhone will add a period or question mark while detecting your speech.
If you recently updated your iPhone to iOS 16 but youve been facing issues using Dictation, the following post should help you solve them so you can continue using your voice to enter text across apps.
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How To Enable The Speech Controller
The Speech Controller is a control panel that lives on your screen that you can expand to help you control speech playback on your iPhone or iPad by playing speech, pausing it, skipping forward and back, or changing the speed.
How To Change The Speaking Rate For Spoken Text
Spoken Content going a little too fast or a little too slowly for your needs? You can change the Speaking Rate in your settings.
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Always Show The Speech Controller
If you’ve ever used AssistiveTouch on your iPhone, you know that the AssistiveTouch button appears on top of every screen, ready for you to use at a moment’s notice. You can move the button, and its opacity can be low enough when idle so that it doesn’t draw your attention away from what you’re doing.
The Speech Controller can be set up just like the AssistiveTouch button. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content > Speech Controller, then toggle on the “Show Controller” switch.
How To Add Pronunciations
If you use spoken text for your email but it always mispronounces certain names, you can add your preferred pronunciations within the Spoken Content on iPhone settings.
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How To Make Siri Read Text For You
The modern world of technology is full of helpful tools and features that make our lives easier. Among them is Siri, an Apple-exclusive voice assistant that acts as a personal assistant for your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and HomePod. With Siri, you can do everything from setting reminders to getting directions.
Today we will dive into how to make Siri read text aloud on any device. This feature is especially useful if youre visually impaired or need a bit of extra help while multitasking. By taking advantage of this useful tool, you can stay connected and informed with ease.
To get started with making Siri read text aloud on your Apple device:1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad and select Siri & Search2. Select Text to Speech3. Toggle the Speak Selection switch to the green ON position4. Highlight the desired text you want Siri to read aloud5. Tap the Speak button at the bottom of the page6. Listen as Siri reads your selected text aloud!
If you want more control over how much text Siri reads aloud, you can also adjust the speaking rate by tapping on Speaking Rate in Settings > Siri & Search > Text To Speech > Speaking Rate . Here you can choose from four different speeds slow, normal, fast and very fast. You can also toggle on Reduce Motion which will reduce any animations while Siri is reading a selection of text out loud.