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hello dave

There's a way to make your iPhone read text out to you

Sometimes it’s handy to hear what’s on screen instead of reading it.

EVER CHECKED OUT your phone’s accessibility features?

While their primary purpose is help those who need assistance using their phone, for the rest of us, they allow a few ways to adjust our phone and tailor it for our own needs.

Speech accessibility can be handy if you prefer listening to text instead of reading it, and having it at your fingertips is always useful in case you need it.

If you own an iPhone or iPad, you can find it by going into Settings > General > Accessibility > Speech. 

You will be presented with a few options, but turning on Speak Screen is the first thing you should do.

Now that you have it activated, you can swipe down from the top of the screen with two fingers to hear the contents of the screen or page read out to you.

This is useful for other things like Kindle on your phone, but you will have to deal with a monotone robotic voice, similar to Siri, instead of a traditional voiceover for an audiobook.

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Other options include changing the reading speed (although the default setting will be good enough for many people) and highlighting text so you know where it’s at on the screen.

Read: WiFi speed not up to scratch? Here’s how you can try fixing it…

Read: Virtual Reality is amazing – but there are a few things to keep in mind

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