Hear text in ebooks read out loud with Read Aloud, VoiceOver, or text-to-speech.
Read Aloud is available in the Play Books mobile app.
Turn on Read Aloud for ebooks
Important: To use Read Aloud, view the ebook in flowing text mode. Learn about viewing options in Play Books.
- Open the Play Books app .
- Open a book.
- To enter skim mode, tap the page.
- At the top right, tap Menu .
- Tap Read aloud.
Turn on Read Aloud automatically
- Open the Play Books app .
- At the top right, tap your Profile picture.
- Tap Play Books Settings Automatically read aloud.
- When you open a book, Read Aloud turns on.
Tip: Not all books have this option. Publishers choose whether Read Aloud is available for their books.
Use a more natural reading voice
Important: You can only use this mode when your device is connected to the internet. To use Read Aloud when your device is offline, turn off the natural reading voice.
- Open the Play Books app .
- At the top right, tap your Profile picture.
- Tap Play Books Settings.
- Turn on More natural reading voice.
Change the default voice and language
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Accessibility.
- At the bottom, tap Text-to-speech output.
- Next to “Preferred engine,” tap Settings .
- Tap Install voice data.
- Select the language you want to use.
- Go back to the Text-to-speech output menu, to make your final language selection.
- Tap Language.
- Select a language.
Change the speech speed
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Accessibility.
- At the bottom, tap Text-to-speech output.
- Under “Speech rate,” set your desired speed.
Tips:
- If you have a text-to-speech app, you can set it as the default.
- The Play Books app uses your default text-to-speech app.
Turn on text-to-speech with TalkBack
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Accessibility TalkBack.
- Turn on TalkBack.
- Scroll and tap Settings.
- Scroll and turn off Explore by touch.
Tips:
- In the Play Books app, you hear book titles first, then menu options.
- To hear menu options first, swipe left.