Can Gmail read emails aloud?

Can Gmail read emails aloud? Not on its own. Gmail has no button that reads a message out loud, on the web or in its phone apps. But you can still get Gmail to read emails out loud with tools you probably already have. Here are four ways that work, from quickest to most hands-free.

1. Read Gmail aloud on a computer with Chrome

Chrome has a feature called reading mode. It shows just the text of a page in a clean panel, and on a computer it can read that text out loud. It works on Gmail too.

• Open Gmail in Chrome and open the email you want to hear.
• Right-click the message and choose Open in reading mode. You can also press ⌘ + Option + R on a Mac, or Alt + Shift + R on Windows, Linux and ChromeOS.
• Press Play at the top right. Chrome starts reading.
• Use Playback speed to go faster or slower. Under Settings, then Voice selection, you can pick a different voice.

If reading mode shows the wrong part of the page, select the email text first, then open reading mode again. Google says reading mode does not work on every page, so emails built mostly from images may come out empty.

People who use a full screen reader, like ChromeVox, NVDA or VoiceOver on a Mac, can use it with Gmail as well. That is a bigger setup, meant for navigating the whole screen by voice, and more than most people need to hear one email.

2. Read emails out loud in the Gmail app on iPhone

The Gmail app for iPhone has no read aloud option, but every iPhone has Speak Screen, which reads whatever is on the screen in any app.

• Open Settings, then Accessibility, then Read & Speak (Spoken Content in iOS 18 and older), and turn on Speak Screen.
• Open the email in the Gmail app.
• Swipe down from the top of the screen with two fingers. A small panel appears with pause, skip and speed controls.

Speak Screen reads everything it sees, including the sender line, buttons and the footer. Our Speak Screen guide covers it in more detail.

3. Read Gmail aloud on Android

Android gives you a few choices. All of them work inside the Gmail app. Some of the steps below need Android 11 or newer.

Select to Speak

• Open Settings, tap Accessibility, then Select to Speak, and turn on Select to Speak shortcut. If you don't see it, update the Android Accessibility Suite app from Google Play.
• Open an email in Gmail and use the shortcut: a two-finger swipe up, or the Accessibility button.
• Tap Play to hear everything on the screen, or drag your finger over just the part you want read.

In the Select to Speak settings you can turn on Read in background, so it keeps reading while you scroll or switch apps.

Read selected text aloud

For a quick paragraph, you don't need to turn anything on. Select the text, then tap More and Read aloud in the pop-up menu.

Google's Reading mode app

Reading mode is a free app from Google that shows just the text of what's on screen and can read it aloud. It is the closest thing to a clean “read this email” button on Android.

• Install Reading mode from the Play Store (it needs Android 9 or newer) and open it.
• Follow the short tutorial. It takes you to Accessibility settings, where you turn on Reading mode shortcut and tap Allow.
• Open an email in Gmail, tap the shortcut, then tap Play.

Reading mode works best on long, mostly text emails. It does not handle every email, and at the time of writing it supports only English, French, Italian and Spanish.

4. Forward Gmail to an app that reads emails out loud

Spokeninbox is an app for iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and the web made for listening to email. It never logs in to your Gmail. You get a private address, like you@in.spokeninbox.com, and Gmail forwards mail to it. Then you press Play and each email is read in a natural voice, with buttons, ads, sponsor blocks, legal footers and raw links taken out.

Forward everything

You need Gmail on a computer for this part.

• In Gmail, click Settings (the gear), then See all settings.
• Open the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.
• Click Add a forwarding address, enter your Spokeninbox address, then click Next, Proceed and OK.
• Gmail sends a confirmation email to that address. It shows up in the Spokeninbox app with the confirmation code. Enter the code back in Gmail's Forwarding section and click Verify.
• Select Forward a copy of incoming mail to and pick your Spokeninbox address. Google recommends Keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox, so nothing changes in Gmail itself.
• Click Save Changes at the bottom.

Gmail forwards new mail only, not what is already in your inbox, and it never forwards spam.

Forward only some senders

If you only want to hear newsletters or a few people, add and verify the address as above but leave automatic forwarding off. Then use a filter:

• In the Gmail search box, click Show search options.
• Type the senders in the From field, then click Create filter.
• Check Forward it, choose your Spokeninbox address and click Create filter.

You can also forward any single email by hand from the Gmail app. Once emails arrive, Spokeninbox keeps playing with your phone locked, shows lock-screen controls and remembers exactly where you stopped in each email. It reads English, Spanish and Russian.

What about Gemini and Google Assistant?

Gmail now has several AI features, but none of them reads an email to you from start to finish.

• Summarize this email puts a short written summary at the top of a long thread. It is text, not audio.
• Gmail Live, which started rolling out in September 2026, lets you talk to Gmail and ask questions like “What's my flight's gate number?” It is for Google AI Plus, Pro and Ultra subscribers, in English, on iPhone and Android. It finds answers in your inbox. It is not built to read whole emails.

Older guides tell you to ask Google Assistant to read your emails. Google has been replacing Assistant with Gemini on phones since 2025, so don't count on that working today.

Which way should you use?

The first three are good for a single message. They get tiring when you want to get through a pile of email on a walk: they read one email at a time, they read the clutter (unsubscribe links, legal text, raw web addresses), and they forget where you were if you stop. For more ways to listen on every device, see our main guide to having your emails read aloud.

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