How to Have Siri Read Your Text Messages and Other Text

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Listen to your messages hands-free with Siri

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: January 21, 2026 Fact Checked

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• Reading Texts with Siri
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• Replying with Siri
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• Reading Other Text with Siri
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• Enabling & Disabling Siri
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• Video
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• Q&A

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Whether you're driving, working out, or doing stuff around the house, you can have Siri read you important messages and other text so you don't have to look at your phone. This wikiHow article will teach you how to make Siri read your text messages aloud, either through your iPhone or iPad's speaker or through your AirPods. We'll also show you how to enable other screen-reading features that make Siri read anything that's on your screen.

Make Siri Read Text Aloud

• To have Siri read your texts, say something like, "Hey Siri, read my text messages," or "Read my most recent text from John."
• To reply to a text, say, "Hey Siri, send a reply," or "Hey Siri, reply to John with 'see you soon!'"
• To have Siri read other text, enable Read & Speak features like Speak Screen and Speak Selection.

Steps

Section 1 of 4:

Have Siri Read Text Messages

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1. 
   1
   Start Siri. Siri can read back your unread text messages just by using voice commands. There are a couple of ways to start Siri:

   • Say, "Hey Siri."
   • If your iPhone or iPad uses Face ID, you can press and hold the side button to start Siri.
   • If your device has a Home button, you can press and hold the Home button to start Siri.
   • If "Type to Siri" is enabled, you can double-tap the bottom edge of your phone to activate Siri.
   • If none of these tricks start Siri, jump to Enable or Disable Siri to turn Siri on.
2. 
   2
   Check if you have any new messages. You can have Siri check if you have any new messages. Just say something like "Do I have new messages?" or "Check my messages." Siri will respond with how many unread messages you have, and begin reading the first one back.

   • If you only want to check your most recent message, say "Read my latest message."
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3. 
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   Have Siri read messages from a specific person. If you just want to hear new messages from a certain person, you can tell Siri. For example, to hear messages from Megan, you could say, "Read my messages from Megan." If there are new messages from two different people named Megan, Siri may ask which one you mean.

   • You can also use Siri to read your emails aloud.
4. 
   4
   Have Siri repeat the message. You can have Siri repeat the last message by saying "Repeat the message" or "Read again." This can be useful, because the written message will not be displayed on the screen.
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Section 2 of 4:

Have Siri Respond to Text Messages

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1. 
   1
   After Siri reads a text, say "Yes" or "Reply." After reading back a message, Siri will ask you if you want to respond. Saying "Yes" will allow you to dictate your message. You can also say, "Hey Siri, send a reply to <name>" to prepare a response.

   • If you choose not to reply, Siri will move on to reading the next new message.
2. 
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   Say the message you want to send. If you use Siri often, it should be pretty good at picking out what you're saying. Still, you may want to speak a little slowly so that Siri picks up every word.
3. 
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   Review the message. Unless you've changed your settings, Siri will display your reply so you can review it before sending. If you need to change the message, say "No" or "Cancel," then try again.

   • If you want Siri to send text messages without you needing to review them first, you can go to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri (or Siri) > Messaging with Siri and turn on "Automatically send messages."
4. 
   4
   Send the reply. Say "Yes" or "Send" to have Siri send the reply.

   • Having trouble with talk-to-text? Check out our iPhone dictation troubleshooting guide.
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Section 3 of 4:

Have Siri Read Other Text

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1. 
   1
   Open your iPhone's Settings

   

   . If you want to have your iPhone read other text aloud, you can enable Speak Screen and/or "Speak Selection." Once enabled, you can hear all the text on the current screen read aloud by saying, "Hey Siri, speak screen," or selected text by highlighting it and selecting "Speak."
2. 
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   Tap [[Image:|techicon|x30px|alt=]]. It's in the second group of settings.
3. 
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   Tap Read & Speak. This opens various screen-reading options.
4. 
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   Enable Speak Screen. If you want Siri to be able to read all the text on the screen, tap Speak Screen, then toggle on the "Speak Screen" feature. This makes it possible to have Siri read you all the text on the screen whenever you say, "Hey Siri, speak screen."

   • Once selected, tap the back button to return to the previous screen.
5. 
   5
   Enable Speak Selection (optional). If you also want to enable a feature that allows you to have Siri read selected text, you can tap Speak Selection and toggle on the switch. Once enabled, you can select text with your finger, then tap Speak to have Siri read it to you.
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Section 4 of 4:

Enable or Disable Siri

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1. 
   1
   Open your Settings and select Siri. If you don't see "Siri," tap Apple Intelligence & Siri instead.

   • Siri is turned on by default, but you can easily turn it on and off in your settings.
2. 
   2
   Tap Talk to Siri. It's near the top of the screen.
3. 
   3
   Adjust your Siri settings. If Siri isn't starting for you when you say "Hey Siri," make sure either "Siri or Hey Siri" or "Hey Siri" is selected from the top section. If you want Siri to activate when you press the side button on your phone, toggle on "Press Side Button for Siri."

   • Alternatively, if you want to disable Siri, turn these features off.
   • Tap the back button to go to the previous screen.
4. 
   4
   Choose whether to allow Siri when your screen is locked. If you want to be able to say "Hey Siri, read my texts" or give other Siri commands when your screen is locked, toggle on "Allow Siri When Locked." Otherwise, you can leave this feature off.
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Community Q&A

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• Question

  How can I make Siri read old (previously read) text messages?

  

  Community Answer

  Siri cannot do this unless you ask her and you know the person and the exact date of the conversation.

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