By Lydia | Last Updated
If you’ve ever found yourself typing away on your iPhone or iPad and suddenly hearing your device read out text suggestions or autocorrections, you’re probably using the “Speak Auto-text” feature. I'll display how to enable or disable Speak Auto-text on your iPhone or iPad. Let's get started!
Apple Speak Auto-text is a built-in feature on iPhones and iPads that provides spoken feedback for text suggestions, such auto-corrections, auto-capitalization, predictive text suggestion. For example, if you’re typing a message, and your iPhone offers an autocorrection, Speak Auto-text will read it out.
However, there're also some pros and cons you should know, then to decide whether to enable it or not:
Pros: Enable Speak Auto-text can enhance accessibility, speeds up typing, and improves accuracy by providing auditory feedback for text suggestions and autocorrections.
Cons: However, there’re also some users prefer a quieter typing experience, especially in public settings where you may not want your text suggestions read aloud.
After learning what Speak Auto-text is, let’s walk through the steps to enable or disable it. The process may vary slightly depending on your device iOS version. Here is how:
For iOS 13 and Later:
Step 1: Open iPhone Settings, tap on Accessibility.
Step 2: Under the Vision section, tap on Spoken Content, and then Typing Feedback.
Step 3: Locate the Speak Auto-text option. To enable iPhone Speak Auto-text, toggle the switch to the on (green) position. If you want to disable it, toggle the switch to the off (gray) position.
For iOS 12 and Earlier:
Step 1: Go iPhone Settings > General > Accessibility .
Step 2: Tap Speech and then tap on Typing Feedback option.
Step 3: Toggle the Speak Auto-text switch to turn it on or off.
There are also other settings to help you better use Speak Auto-text as below:
Characters: When enabled, it will speak every character you type. You can tap "+" or "-" to adjust the character feedback delay.
Character Hints: Every time you type a character, it will auto-predict the word you're typing. For example, when typing "e," it will speak "echo".
Speak Words: When you finish typing a word, it will read it aloud to make it clear.
Hold to Speak Predictions: Hold on the predicted word, and it will read it aloud.
Q1: Is Speak Auto-text available on all iOS devices?
Yes, Speak Auto-text is available on iPhone and iPad devices running iOS 8 or later.
Q2: Can I still hear text to speech without enabling Speak Auto-text?
Yes, if you prefer to get text to speech on iPhone, you can enable Speak Selection or Speak Screen instead. Here’s how:
Steps: Go to Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content, then toggle Speak Selection or Speak Screen option on.
Speak Selection allows you to highlight text and then tap Speak to hear it read aloud. While Speak Screen will read everything on the screen aloud, including text within apps.
Q3: Can I Change Speak Auto-text Voice on iPhone?
Of course, you can customize other related settings by setting up Spoken Content on your iPhone, such as Speaking Rate, Speaking Voice.
Steps: Open iPhone Settings, then navigate to Accessibility > Spoken Content, tap on Voices option, here to choose a voice that you prefer.
