So back a ways I remember when I was out and about and got a message, it would pause the music and read the message to me. Then it mysteriously stopped working. Just got a 17 Pro and wanted to look into this. Poured through the 14,000 choices in Settings, trying to set everything up for success. No good. Went to Gemini and it had a LOT of suggestions, so I did them all. Still don’t hear it on the headphones, BUT I do here it on the phone itself. Friends say it won’t work because I’m using Sony WHM5 headphones. Is THAT the truth, am I SOL?
When driving, I’ve always been able to say “Hey Siri, read my last text message”, in order to get an audio transcription.
But I don’t know if there’s a way to do this automatically as messages arrive.
I assume you’re using AirPods to listen to the music? I have the exact opposite problem. As soon as I connect the AirPods to the phone, the “announce notifications” facility is automatically invoked. This is new with iOS 26 (afaicr). When I’m out walking, I want to listen to my podcasts and not be interrupted by notifications. I have to now remember to turn this off every time I connect the AirPods. Perhaps in your case you can try turning it on? (In Control Center–swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen.)
I never have notification announcements, and that’s probably because I turned off settings / notifications / announce notifications. That should be a lot easier than using control center each time you use AirPods. And maybe @tidbits41 - try seeing if that’s turned on.
Right? But for me, that Control Center option gets toggled on every time I connect the AirPods. Despite the fact that I have Announce Notifications turned off as well. But agreed that is a good approach for the OP.