How to Instruct Siri to Always Speak Notifications on an iPhone

Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

Last Updated: February 20, 2017

This wikiHow teaches you how to enable VoiceOver and turn on the setting that causes your phone to tell you when you receive calls, text messages, app alerts or even when your screen dims.

Steps

1
Open your iPhone's Settings. It's an app showing gray cogs that can be found on one of your home screens.
- It may also be in a folder that's labeled Utilities.
2
Tap General. It's located in the third group of menu options.
3
Tap Accessibility. It's located toward the bottom half of the screen, under CarPlay.
4
Tap VoiceOver. It's at the top, listed under the "Vision" heading.
5
Slide the "VoiceOver" button to the On position. Turning on this screen-reading feature allows you to hear what is happening on your screen at all times, from your phone locking to what time it is to the app that is currently highlighted.
- If you only want to hear verbal notifications temporarily, you can create a shortcut to quickly turn on/off the VoiceOver feature. From the Accessibility menu, just tap Accessibility Shortcut. You'll need to scroll all the way to the bottom of the menu to see it. Next, tap VoiceOver. It's at the top, listed under the "Triple-click the Home Button for" heading. Now, when you triple-click the home button (the big circle button underneath your phone screen), you can either turn VoiceOver on or off.
6
Tap Verbosity and use swipe with three fingers to scroll down the page. You'll need to scroll down on your phone differently when VoiceOver is turned on.
7
Tap Always Speak Notifications, and double-tap it to activate the setting. The bar should turn green. Now you will get a verbal notification from Siri whenever you get a call, text or notification to your iPhone.

Community Q&A

Question

How do I disable or mute certain notifications?

Community Answer

Go to settings, find the app(s) and click where it says to disable notifications.