How to use Speak Screen on iPhone (and turn it off)

Speak Screen is a free feature built into every iPhone and iPad. It reads whatever is on the screen out loud: a web page, a book, a note or an email. This guide shows how to turn on Speak Screen on iPhone, how to use it, how to change the voice and speed, and how to turn it off when it keeps starting by itself.

What is Speak Screen?

Speak Screen is one of Apple's accessibility features. It is meant for people with low vision, but anyone can use it. When you start it, your iPhone reads all the text on the screen, starting from the top, in a computer voice. You don't need to turn on VoiceOver, Apple's full screen reader for blind users, which changes how every tap works.

It has a sibling called Speak Selection, which reads only the words you select. Both live in the same settings screen.

How to turn on Speak Screen on iPhone

Apple moved these settings in iOS 26. On a current iPhone:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Accessibility, then Read & Speak.
3. Tap Speak Screen, then turn on Speak Screen.

On the same Speak Screen page you will find three extra options:

• Highlighting: choose whether words or sentences light up as they are read, and in which style and color.
• Show Controller: keeps the Speak Screen controls on the screen all the time, even when nothing is being read.
• Controller Actions: choose what happens when you long-press or double-tap the controller, and shrink it when you're not using it.

How to use Speak Screen on iPhone

Open whatever you want to hear. Then either:

• Swipe down with two fingers from the very top of the screen. Leave a little space between your fingers so the iPhone sees two touches, not one.
• Or ask Siri: say “Speak screen.”

Your iPhone starts reading from the top, and the Speak Screen controller pops up.

The Speak Screen controller

The controller is a small floating panel. You can drag it to another part of the screen. It lets you:

• Pause and play the reading.
• Skip back or forward to the part you want to hear.
• Change the speed with the speed button.
• Use Speak on Touch: tap the finger icon, then tap the text you want read, and it reads from there.
• Shrink it to a small button, or close it with the X, which also stops the reading.

If you leave the controller alone for a few seconds it shrinks out of the way. Tap it to open it again.

Accessibility Reader: a newer option

iOS 26 also added Accessibility Reader, in the same Read & Speak menu. Instead of reading the screen as it is, it shows the text in a clean full-screen view with your own font and colors, and has play, skip and speed controls. Turn it on, open an app, then triple-click the side button or use its Control Center button. It is worth trying if Speak Screen reads too much clutter.

Change the voice and speed

Go to Settings, then Accessibility, then Read & Speak. There you can change:

• Voices: pick a voice and accent. Some voices need to be downloaded first. Enhanced-quality voices can be 100 MB or larger, so use Wi-Fi.
• Speaking Rate: drag the slider to make the voice faster or slower. You can also change speed on the fly with the controller.
• Default Language and Detect Languages: useful if you read in more than one language.
• Pronunciations: teach it how to say a name or word it gets wrong.

Speak Selection: read just the part you choose

Speak Selection reads only the text you highlight, which is handy when you want one paragraph, not the whole page.

1. Go to Settings, then Accessibility, then Read & Speak, and turn on Speak Selection.
2. In any app, touch and hold a word to select it, then drag the handles to cover the text you want.
3. Tap Speak in the menu that pops up.

Speak Selection uses the same voice and speaking rate as Speak Screen.

Speak Screen on iPad

Speak Screen works the same way on iPad. The settings path is the same (Settings, then Accessibility, then Read & Speak), and you start it with the same two-finger swipe down from the top of the screen, or by asking Siri. Speak Selection, the controller, voices and speed are all there too.

How to turn off Speak Screen on iPhone

To stop the current reading, tap pause or the X on the controller. To turn the feature off completely:

1. Open Settings, then Accessibility, then Read & Speak.
2. Tap Speak Screen and turn off Speak Screen.
3. If you also want the Speak option gone from the text menu, turn off Speak Selection too.

On iOS 18 and older, use Accessibility, then Spoken Content instead.

Speak Screen won't stop or keeps starting

A few common problems and what to do:

• It starts by accident. The two-finger swipe from the top is easy to do by mistake, for example when you pull down Notification Center with two fingers touching the screen. If you never use Speak Screen, turn it off using the steps above. If you do use it, try to swipe down with one finger when you want Notification Center.
• The controller never goes away. Go to Read & Speak, then Speak Screen, and turn off Show Controller. With it on, the controls stay on screen even when nothing is playing.
• Tapping the controller starts reading. That is a Controller Action: a long press or double-tap on the controller can start reading. Change or turn off these actions under Controller Actions.
• It won't stop reading. Tap the controller to open it, then tap pause or the X. If you can't reach it, turn off Speak Screen in Settings, which stops it.
• Everything you tap is read out loud. That is probably VoiceOver, not Speak Screen. Ask Siri to “turn off VoiceOver,” or go to Settings, then Accessibility, then VoiceOver.
• The two-finger swipe does nothing. Check that Speak Screen is turned on, and start the swipe from the very top edge of the screen. Asking Siri to “speak screen” is a good fallback.

Using Speak Screen for email (and where it falls short)

Speak Screen is the easiest built-in way to have an email read aloud on iPhone. Open the message in Mail, Gmail, Outlook or any other email app, then swipe down with two fingers. For a short note, it works well.

For newsletters and long emails, it gets tiring:

• It reads everything on the screen. The app's buttons, the sender details, unsubscribe links, legal footers and raw web addresses all get read out.
• It reads one email at a time. When one ends, you go back to the inbox, open the next one and swipe again.
• It doesn't remember where you were. Stop halfway through and the next swipe starts again from the top of the screen.
• You need the email open in front of you to start it, which is awkward on a walk or in the car.

Siri is not much better. By default it reads only the sender and subject; see can Siri read your emails? For every other way to hear email on your phone or computer, see our guide to having your emails read aloud.

A better way to listen to email: Spokeninbox

Spokeninbox is an app for iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and the web made for listening to email. It never logs in to your mailbox. Instead:

• You get a private address, like you@in.spokeninbox.com, and forward email to it: everything, only some senders, or one email by hand.
• You press Play. The email is turned into clean narration, with buttons, ads, sponsor blocks, legal footers and raw links removed, and read in a natural AI voice.
• It keeps playing with your phone locked, with lock-screen controls, and remembers exactly where you stopped in each email.
• It speaks English, Spanish and Russian, and picks the right one for each email.

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