How to get siri to read your notes

Every wanted to jot down a thought in the Notes app, but your hands are busy? Relax, Siri has got you covered.

In iOS 15, you can use Siri to take notes and even quickly search your notes, so you can always jot down your important thoughts. Here's how to take notes with Siri on iPhone and iPad.

How to dictate a note to Siri on iPhone and iPad

1. Press and hold the Home button, **Side Button*, or say "Hey, Siri" to launch Siri.
2. Say "Take a note."
3. Dictate your note to Siri.

Once you're done talking, Siri will automatically save what you dictated to the Notes app. Dictating notes to Siri may not be perfect in its current form, but it can often be much quicker than typing them out. Then, when you have time later, you can go in and add a title or make any needed changes.

How to find and view notes with Siri on iPhone and iPad

1. Press and hold the Home button, Side Button, or say "Hey, Siri" to launch Siri.
2. Say something like "Show me my notes" or "Show me notes from today" or "Show me notes about iMore" — just replace iMore with the keyword you want Siri to search.
3. Siri will present you with a list of notes in the Notes app that matches the description.
4. Tap on the note you want to open.

Quick Notes on iPad

While you can use Siri to take notes on both your iPhone and iPad, your best iPad has a different feature that may be useful to know about.

One of the new features in iPadOS 15 is Quick Note. With this, you can invoke a simple notepad on your iPad, quickly jot down any little bits of invaluable information, save links, and even add text and images from Safari.

One of them is to read text messages, emails, notes, web pages, and iBooks out loud for you. This feature is quite useful when you are not in the mood to read. In such situations, you can make use of it and listen instead.

Having Siri by your side, you can now command it to read anything you like while keeping up with your other works. It can also come in handy when you have to navigate from app to app but still read a document.

If this feature and its benefits have piqued your interest then continue reading to learn how to use Siri speak functionality on your iPhone or iPad. Use the following methods to activate it on your device.

Recommended: How To Type To Siri Instead Of Speaking

Contents

• 1 Make Siri Read Anything On iOS
  • 1.1 Using Speak Selection
  • 1.2 Using Speak Screen
  • 1.3 Speak Selection Vs Speak Screen
  • 1.4 How To Get Siri To Read iBooks
• 2 Conclusion

Make Siri Read Anything On iOS

In order to use Siri as a text to speech translator follow the steps given below.

1. Open Settings and select General.

2. Now navigate to Accessibility and select it.

3. Under Accessibility tap on Speech. Next, toggle Speak Selection and Speak Screen switch to ON.

From the Speech screen, you can also control the speaking speed of the output.

Using Speak Selection

On activating the Speak Selection feature you will get the Speak option whenever you select text anywhere on your iPhone. For instance, if you want Siri to read text messages then open Messages.

After that, open the conversation of the contact whose text messages you desire to read. On selecting the conversation, long press on the message you want Siri to read out for you. With this, you will get a menu. From that, select Speak.

Similarly, you can select the text on a web page by long pressing on it and sliding. Then select Speak.

In the same way, you can select text in any app like Mail, Gmail, Safari, etc. and you will get the Speak option. It can also read out Emojis for you whenever they appear in the content.

Using Speak Screen

With Speak Screen, you can swipe down from the top of the screen using two fingers or you can simply activate Siri and give the command Speak Screen. On doing this, Siri will read the complete content available on the screen.

It also gives you control options like reading speed, Play/Pause, forward and backward.

Once the speak screen feature is enabled, open up a webpage or e-book on your iPhone. Press the home button for a while to activate Siri and give the command Speak Screen or simply swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen. This will allow Siri to read any text on the screen.

This is a smart feature which can transform your ebook into an audiobook. But it won’t be necessary to read text messages because it is beneficial for lengthy text only. You can use this feature while you are driving or cooking.

Speak Selection Vs Speak Screen

Both of these are magnificent features in iOS but there is a specific difference between them. The Speak Selection allows you to select content and that selected text will be converted to speech by Siri. On the other hand, if you are using Speak screen it will read the entire content on the page from top to bottom.

Thus both of these have different uses, in case you want to hear a certain text message or specific text from the web page or ebook use Speak Selection. To listen to an entire E-book or iBook you can command Siri to Speak Screen and it will start reading it.

Another key difference is that, speak selection doesn’t allow you to navigate from one app to another while Siri is reading. But with the speak screen, you can minimize the control and browse from one app to another while it’s reading. Unlike Speak Selection, it even works when the iPhone is locked.

How To Get Siri To Read iBooks

If you are addicted to iBooks then you must also know the disadvantages of looking into a display for too long. What if you could turn your iBook into an audiobook?

Yes, it is possible. This is a very simple trick you can perform with your iBooks, whenever you feel tired and want to listen to them.

Go to the iBook store and open a book that you want to listen to. Tap on the aA icon at the top and enable Scrolling View. Now, select the specific text and tap on Speak.

Alternatively, you can select and read the complete iBook at once by using Speak Screen. You can use the same methods listed above to activate it in iBook.

If you are also a MacBook user then you can convert text to speech on macOS using these methods.

Quick Read: How To Remove All Alarms At Once

Conclusion

We hope that this article was able to answer all your queries regarding making Siri speak text.

If you want to read the specific text then it makes sense to go for Speak Selection while you can make use of Speak Screen for books, longer texts, or when you can’t access your iPhone physically.

Which do you use more often?

Also, with this trick, you can make Siri read a WhatsApp chat that’s written in a language you don’t know. You just need to translate the chat first.