We all have varied preferences for consuming content. For example, some prefer to sit back and listen to podcasts and audiobooks while not being the biggest fans of reading long, text-heavy articles. Thankfully, your iPhone has you covered. Here’s how to use the Listen to Page feature in Safari to make it read a webpage aloud for you!
The feature is a recent addition to Safari on iPhone as a part of the iOS 17 update. However, even if you are using an older iPhone that does not run iOS 17, there’s an alternative feature that lets you listen to a web page in Safari. In this article, we want to show you how to use these features; let’s begin.
What Is the Listen to Page Feature in iOS 17
The ‘Listen to Page’ feature lets Safari read aloud a webpage and all of its text contents. It was introduced recently with the iOS 17 update and works on blogs, articles, and other text-heavy web pages in Safari.
It supports webpages in all languages supported by Siri. Further, you can also control playback by increasing the speed of the audio output, and you can go forward or back by ten seconds. We’ll show you how to do it in the following section.
Make Safari Read Text Out Loud on iOS 17
Here’s how to use the Listen to Page feature to let Safari read text aloud from webpages.
Step 1: Open Safari and open the article or blog you want to listen to.
Step 2: Tap on the Aa icon in the toolbar.
Step 3: Tap on Listen to Page.
The audio playback will begin, and Safari will read aloud the article for you. Now, let’s figure out how to control the audio playback.
Control the Audio Playback
You only get the bare minimum audio playback controls. However, the essentials are covered. You can tap on the loudspeaker icon, select Speaking rate, and change the speed of the audio playback.
You can also go back or forward 10 seconds in the audio playback.
Additionally, the playback controls are also available on the lock screen. Interestingly, the widget on the lock screen also shows the time left in the audio narration.
How to Change Listen to Page Language on Safari
If you see an article you want to listen to in Safari that isn’t written in the default language of your iPhone, you may notice that the ‘Listen to Page’ option will be greyed out. Hence, you must change that language in Siri to enable the option. Here’s how:
Step 1: Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
Step 2: Tap on ‘Siri & Search’.
Step 3: Tap on Language.
Step 4: Select the language in the article to listen to in Safari.
Additionally, you can also change the voice/accent of the narration language. For example, I can change the English narration accent by changing the Siri Voice settings.
That is everything you need to know about the ‘Listen to Page’ feature on iOS 17. If you are using an older iPhone that isn’t running iOS 17, you can use the similar ‘Speak Screen’ feature.
Use Speak Screen to Read Webpage Aloud on iPhone
Your iPhone has an accessibility feature called Speak Screen that narrates all the text on-screen. However, it isn’t as refined as the ‘Listen to Page’ feature, designed specifically to narrate the necessary content on a webpage. The Speak Screen proceeds to read all the text on the screen, including the ones that aren’t necessary, like ad banners on the webpage.
But you get a good number of options to control the audio output. Let’s explore all of them.
Step 1: Open the Settings app and select Accessibility.
Step 2: Tap on Spoken Content.
Step 3: Turn on the toggle for Speak Screen.
Step 4: Go back to Safari and swipe down with two fingers from the top of your iPhone. This will enable the speak screen.
Now, your iPhone will narrate the website contents whenever you open it on Safari.
Step 5: Tap on the speech controller floating button. Here, you’ll find all the options to control playback.
Select Section to Narrate: Once you tap on this button, select the specific area of the screen to be narrated. Enable this option, and tap on the area you want narrated.
Previous: This lets you go back to the narration of the previous section of the text.
Play/Pause: This lets you play or pause the narration.
Next: This lets you go to the narration of the next section of the text.
Change Narration Speed: This lets you change the speed of text narration.
Close Speak Screen: This will close and turn off the Speak Screen feature.
Also Read: How to use VoiceOver Screen Reader on Mac
FAQs About ‘Listen to Page’ on Safari
1. Why is the ‘Listen to Page’ option greyed out in Safari? The feature only works on websites with consistent paragraphs of text content. Further, the option will be greyed out if the content on the website is different from the Siri language.
2. Does the ‘Listen to Page’ option work on saved websites offline in Safari? Yes, if you can load the website offline, you can use the ‘Listen to Page’ feature in Safari.
3. Why is the ‘Listen to Page’ option not working in Safari on my iPhone? Check your internet connectivity and restart your iPhone to fix the issue.
4. How do I stop Safari from narrating the page to me? You can tap on the ‘Aa’ button > Listening Controls > End Listening to stop the narration.
Get iPhone to Read Webpages
We hope this article helps you listen to websites on Safari with ease. However, we wish Apple added more playback controls to this feature. But we like how the voice does not seem as robotic as the traditional text-to-speech style. Further, with Apple rumored to be working on a large language model, we can expect significant enhancement of features like these with forthcoming updates.
Guiding Tech
