iPhone trick: Have Siri read web articles aloud

Anyone who uses the Safari app to access websites on the iPhone and iPad can use it after the upgrade iOS 17 and newer or iPadOS 17 and newer content can be read out by Siri. There are even options for this after updating the operating system two more votes available. The reading function can be started and controlled directly in Safari. So if you don't feel like reading long web articles on the small iPhone display, you can simply listen to them. You can take a break in between. And if you're in a hurry, you can increase the playback speed. 

Have Siri read websites to you on your iPhone: Requirements

There are a few things you need to keep in mind if you want Apple's voice assistant to read content from the web. This works relatively easily on the Mac via Edit -> Speech output, but on the iPhone and iPad, web articles must be accessed individually and be suitable for reader view.

So if you're on a page that keeps loading new articles as you scroll through it (e.g. the homepage of a news magazine), you should tap one of them to go to its subpage. You can find out whether the reader is available by tapping the AA symbol in the address bar.

If you want to have the website read to you, you have to Reader view not choose. Their availability simply goes hand in hand with the availability of the listening feature. That's why this is mentioned here. If one is grayed out and cannot be selected, then the same applies to the other.

Instructions for the iPhone: Have Siri read web articles aloud

You can try it out with this blog post, for example. Open it in the Safari app on the iPhone or iPad and the message “Reader available” should briefly appear in the address bar. Then tap on the AA symbol next to the URL, where you can then select everything else. And this is how it works:

1. Brings in a web article Safari on the iPhone or iPad
2. Tap on that AA symbol next to the URL in the address bar
3. Now select in its menu Listen to page from
4. type that Speech bubble icon in the address line
5. Chooses Control for listening to access the media controls

Listen to the page in Safari: Control playback and adjust the tempo

As you can see in the step-by-step instructions and the screenshots, you can achieve audio playback of a web text relatively easily. The screenshots are from an iPhone, but it should work just as easily on the iPad.

With the control called up you can also pause or stop playback, jump back and forth and adjust the speech tempo. The voice speed can be selected from 0,75x, 1x, 1,25x, 1,5x, 1,75x and 2x. The default is of course 1x.

Have a website read out on your iPhone using Siri voice command?

Another possibility was shown in English-language articles that already dealt with the topic during the beta phase of iOS 17. It was described that you can simply open a web article and then say “Hey Siri, read this to me.” (or “Hey Siri, read this to me.”).

When I tried this, the article accessed was not read out. Instead, Siri responded "There's nothing I can read to you." Either the feature has been removed or is not available in this country. Or it doesn't work on my iPhone 12 Pro for some reason. If it works for you, please leave a comment!

Johannes Domke

[On vacation] After graduating from high school, Johannes completed training as a business assistant specializing in foreign languages. But then he decided to research and write, which led to his independence. He has been working for Sir Apfelot, among others, for several years now. His articles include product introductions, news, instructions, video games, consoles and much more. He follows Apple keynotes live via stream.