iPhone Text to Speech: 2024 Complete Guide📱

While you might prefer reading articles and books visually, there are instances where the spoken word becomes a necessity – whether you're on the move, engaged in various tasks, or simply seeking a hands-free experience.

Apple's built-in text-to-speech with emotion offers a solution, and it goes beyond just accessibility features. This guide unveils the intricacies of setting up and maximizing the iPhone's text-to-speech capabilities for a seamless and enriching audio experience.

What Is iPhone Text-to-Speech

iPhone text-to-speech is a feature that allows your iPhone to convert written text into spoken words. This facilitates getting information when you are driving, cooking, or both of your hands are occupied.

After you reach out to these options, you'll find different settings. The primary tool for this purpose is "Speak Screen," an accessibility feature designed to read on-screen content aloud.

By enabling Speak Screen in your iPhone settings, you can have the device read the text displayed on your screen, including web articles, messages, emails, and more.

Users can customize the voice and speaking rate, making the experience more personalized, unlike the FakeYou text-to-speech. The text-to-speech capability can be particularly helpful for turning e-books into audiobooks or for consuming content hands-free.

How to Use iPhone Text-to-Speech

Using iPhone Text to Speech is pretty straightforward, although it does vary with iOS versions. Now, let's get right into it.

To activate text-to-speech on iOS 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17, follow these instructions:

Step 1. Enable iPhone Text to Speech.

Go to "Settings" > "Accessibility" > "Spoken Content" under the "VISION." Toggle on "Speak Screen" to hear out the whole screen, and activate "Speak Selection" ("Speak selected items" for iOS 17) to hear chosen text or items.

Step 2. Adjust Specific Settings.

On the same page, tweaking parameters as needed:

• Voice Controls (Voice Controllers): Reveals controls for convenient access to Speak Screen and Tap to Speak.
• Highlight content: Highlight words, sentences, or both while they are being read aloud. Customization options include changing the highlight color and style.
• Typing feedback: Tailor the feedback for the on-screen keyboard and external keyboards. You can opt to have the iPhone vocalize each character, entire words, autocorrect suggestions, autocapitalization, and predictive typing.
• For predictive typing, head to "Settings" > "General" > "Keyboard," and activate "Predictions."
• Voice: Select your preferred voice and dialect.
• Speech Rate: Adjust the rate using the slider.
• Pronunciation: Specify how you want a phrase to be pronounced by dictating or spelling it out.

Step 3. Listen to iPhone/iPad Read Aloud.

• Speak Screen: Open the e-book, email, text message, or PDF, and swipe down from the screen top with two fingers.
• Speak Selection: Open the articles, select the part you want, and tap "Speak."
• Make Siri speak text: Say "read the screen" or similar content to Siri.
• Listen to typing feedback: Begin typing. To hear predicted words (if enabled), press and hold each word as it's typed.

Adjust speed, pause, play, stop, and skip during reading using the Speech Controller. It auto-hides after inactivity or manually with the back button. The close button cancels Speak Screen and removes the Speech Controller.

You can watch the official video guide📹.

 

Step 4. Optional Changes.

To always show the speech controller in the AssistiveTouch button, go to "Settings" > "Accessibility" > "Spoken Content" > "Show Controller."

To set up the controller, double-tap the button to start Speak on Touch, and select the partial content to read or long press for on-screen reading by default. Or customize your triggers.

Go to "Settings" > "Accessibility" > "Spoken Content" > "Voices," select the supported voices under different languages, preview them, and download them.

Head to "Settings" > "Accessibility" > "Spoken Content" > "Highlight Content," define the highlighted content, styles, and colors.

Step 5. Turn off iPhone TTS.

If you don't like the feature, follow the path to disable it: "Settings" > "Accessibility" > "Spoken Content," toggle it off.

How to Use Personal Voice in iOS 17

Personal Voice is a new feature in iOS 17 that creates your own synthesized voice using your recorded audio samples to change text to speak.

You can type to speak in FaceTime, phone calls, and apps in the AI-generated voice of your own. This feature works with Love Speech.

Step 1. Go to "Settings" > "Accessibility" > "Personal Voice" > "Create a Personal Voice."

Step 2. Find a quiet place, speak naturally, check the sound quality, and read 150 phrases aloud to record your voice.

Step 3. Click continue and let the machine learn and analyze. Keep the phone locked and plugged in. You'll receive a notification when it's done. It's suggested that you do this before bed and let it process overnight.

Step 4. Go to "Settings" > "Accessibility" > "Live Speech," toggle on the option. Click under "VOICES" and "Personal Voice" to choose your voice.

Step 5. Triple-click the side button, type a message, press enter, and you'll hear the voice. Try it on your FaceTime or a call.

Share with other iPhone users.

iPhone Text to Speech Online Alternative-EaseUS VoiceOver

If you are looking for an even more accessible and versatile online text-to-speech service, then you cannot miss EaseUS VoiceOver, a free web-based AI-driven TTS voiceover generator.

This celebrity text-to-speech website supports 468 voices and 149 languages and accents and enables customization options like speed, volume, emotion, pitch, and other settings.

Best of all, it is a free and user-friendly Obama text-to-speech without the need for login. You can either export the audio files or subtitles in MP3, FLAC, SRT, TXT, and more formats.

Key Features

• Voice Variety: Supports 468 voices and 149 languages and accents.
• Customization Options: Enables adjustments for speed, volume, emotion, pitch, and other settings.
• User-Friendly: No login is required, providing a hassle-free experience.
• Export Options: Allows export of audio files or subtitles in formats like MP3, FLAC, SRT, TXT, and more.
• Deep Learning Models: Generates high-quality and high-fidelity audio clips backed by advanced deep learning models.

This tool generates high-quality and high-fidelity audio clips backed by deep learning models. So, if you feel like more advanced settings or use TTS beyond your phone, EaseUS VoiceOver is definitely the way to go. Get it now.

EaseUS VoiceOverGet Free Text to Speech Now

Fix iPhone Text to Speech Not Working

If iPhone Text-to-Speech (TTS) is not working as expected, here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot the issue⚙️:

• Check Settings: Open the Settings app on your iPhone. Go to "Accessibility" and then "Spoken Content." Ensure that "Speak Selection" or "Speak Screen" is turned on.
• Internet Connection: Text-to-speech often requires an active internet connection, as the processing may occur on Apple's servers. Ensure you have a stable internet connection.
• Language Download: If you recently enabled Text-to-Speech or changed languages, your iPhone might need to download additional language packs. Check if there are any prompts for downloads in the Accessibility settings.
• Restart Your iPhone: A simple restart can often resolve minor glitches. Turn off your iPhone, wait a few seconds, and then turn it back on.
• Update iOS: Ensure that your iPhone is running the latest version of iOS. Software updates can include bug fixes and improvements.
• Check App Settings: If Text-to-Speech is not working in a specific app, check the app settings. Some apps may have their own settings for speech features.
• Reset Settings: If the issue persists, you can try resetting all settings on your iPhone. Go to "Settings" > "General" > "Reset" > "Reset All Settings." Keep in mind that this will reset all settings on your device, but it won't delete your data.
• Contact Apple Support: If none of the above steps resolves the issue, it's advisable to contact Apple Support for further assistance.

Wrapping up

iPhone Text to Speech helps users to transform on-screen text into audio for free when you are inconvenient. This applies to web articles, text messages, books, and more. It also releases the new AI voice cloning feature in iOS 17, so you can use your AI voice to communicate with others in a phone call. Use TTS on iPhone to make things easier and unleash creativity.

iPhone Text-to-Speech FAQs

1. How do I enable Voice to text on my iPhone?

To enable Voice to Text on your iPhone, you can use the built-in feature called Dictation. Here's how you can enable it:

• Open "Settings" on your iPhone.
• Go to "General" and then tap on "Keyboard."
• "Enable Dictation" by toggling the switch.
• If prompted, download the language pack.
• Find the microphone icon on the keyboard in supported apps.
• Tap the icon and start speaking to convert your speech to text.

2. How do I get my iPhone to speak words while texting?

If you want your iPhone to speak words aloud while texting, you can use the Speak Words feature. Here's how to enable it:

• Open "Settings" on your iPhone.
• Go to "Accessibility."
• Under "Vision," tap on "Spoken Content."
• Enable "Typing Feedback" > "Speak Words."
• In a text field, select text and tap "Speak" for your iPhone to read it aloud.

3. How do I change my iPhone text to audio?

If you want to convert text to audio on your iPhone, you can use the built-in Speak Selection feature. Here's how you can do it:

• Open "Settings" on your iPhone.
• Go to "Accessibility."
• Under "Vision," tap on "Spoken Content."
• Enable "Speak Selection."
• In a text field, select text and tap "Speak" to have your iPhone read it aloud.