How to turn on VoiceOver on iOS (and off again)

VoiceOver is the built-in screen-reader that comes with iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS.

There are 3 ways to turn VoiceOver on on iOS.

  • The slow way - through Settings
  • The quicker way - through Control Centre
  • The quickest way - through the Side Button

1 The slow way - through Settings

To turn it on on iOS head to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver and set the toggle button to on.

The iOS Accessibility Settings screen
The iOS VoiceOver settings screen

2 The quick way - through the control center

Firstly, in Settings > Control Centre, add ‘Accessibility Shortcuts' to your list of 'Included Controls'. While you are here it is a good idea to add ‘Text Size’ too.

iOS’s Control Centre settings screen

Pull down from the top right corner of your iPhone screen to reveal your Control Centre. You should have an icon which is a circle with a person stood inside it with their arms outstretched… tap it.

iOS’s Control Centre popover

3 The quickest way - add the shortcut to your Side button

Firstly, in Settings > Accessibility, set the ‘Accessibility Shortcut’ value to be ‘VoiceOver’.

iOS’s Accessibility settings screen with ‘Accessibility Shortcut’ shown second from the bottom of the list.

Once this is set you can triple tap on the your iPhone’s side button to toggle it on and off.

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