How To Make Your iPhone Read To You

screenrant.com:

The iPhone can read the on-screen text, and there's a wide selection of voices to choose from in Apple's collection, covering several languages and accents. Early computer voices sounded quite robotic to the degree that it was laughable. Also, machines didn't understand human speech well enough to have proper emphasis and cadence. That has improved dramatically, and the iPhone has several reading voices that sound natural.

Synthetic speech has been a topic of fascination for hundreds of years, but the most amazing progress came with the invention of computers. The Speak & Spell toy was among the first mass-produced devices to put this technology to use in a practical application, making it fun for kids to learn to read and spell. Apple included speech synthesis in its first Macintosh computer, which launched in 1984. Of course, speaking machines are commonplace now with every smartphone and smart speaker, listening to verbal requests and speaking the answer.

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Apple gave the iPhone the ability to read the on-screen text to the user with a simple gesture, making it possible to turn any article or ebook into an eyes-free experience and enable the user to look elsewhere or even close their eyes and visualize the scenes described. Being able to look away is something that's quite necessary when driving, riding a bike, or jogging. The toggle to enable the 'Speak Screen' feature is found in the iPhone's Settings app under the Accessibility tab, in the 'Spoken Content' section. There are several customizable options. 'Speak Screen' is the most useful, allowing a two-finger swipe down to trigger the iPhone to read aloud. The 'Highlight Content' toggle makes it easy to see what