I was looking to have a web page or part of a web page read to me over my AirPods so I can “read” a lengthy article while strolling across town without taking my eyes off the road and sidewalk.
I failed. Miserably. In 2026.
I had imagined something like going to Reader mode and then either tapping a button or choosing from a menu after long press. Ideally, there would be a quick way to choose either read whole page or otherwise, read starting from here. It would be nice if there were also a quick way to pause/play along the way.
I discovered that through Settings > Accessibility > Read & Speak there are a couple options, but even after playing around with those controls, it left a lot to be desired. Accessibility is usually something Apple’s good at and I cannot imagine there aren’t many others who would want to listen to a long page of text instead of read, at least at times (nothing against reading here!). And yet, nothing really worked well.
- There’s an option for on-screen controls, but that blob ends up being always on screen, not just when reading out loud
- There’s no immediate button in Reader mode to evoke/control/end reading out loud
- I cannot set it up such that controls just become available via long press within in or outside of Reader mode
- I could never get the swipe two fingers down from the top of the screen method to work
- Even with speed set to max the reading tempo remained too slow — I can read a lot faster than iPhone could talk
- English worked well in terms of pronunciation and accent, but German and Swedish were a mess; I have yet to try out French but after what I saw with German, I’m skeptical to say the least
I bet somebody out there must have found a way to make this work in an effective and convenient manner. How am I holding it wrong? And how do I make it do what I want the way I want?