How do I turn on Select to Speak on an Android phone?

The 'Select to Speak' feature allows you to select items on your screen and hear them read or described aloud, however please be aware some of the more advanced features mentioned only work on Android 11.0 and up.

To turn on and adjust any of the display settings, you will need to open the Settings app. The Settings app is usually found on the home screen or by flicking down on the top right status bar and searching for the settings cogwheel, it’s almost always in the top right corner.

Turn on Select to Speak

Open your device's Settings app
Tap Accessibility, then tap Select to Speak
Note: If you don't see Select to Speak, go to Google Play to download the latest version of Android Accessibility Suite, then try these steps again
Turn on Select to Speak shortcut.

Hear descriptions of things on your screen

To start Select to Speak, use your Select to Speak shortcut: Two finger swipe up (or three finger swipe if TalkBack is on) or tap the Accessibility button
Tap an item on your screen, like text or an image
To hear multiple items, drag your finger across the screen
To hear everything, tap Play

Tip: When the player is open, use the buttons to pause or play, skip forward or backward and to increase or decrease speed.

Point your camera at pictures or text

You can point your camera at pictures or text to hear them read or described aloud with Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

This feature is available for Catalan, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog and Turkish.

Tap the Google Camera app
Point the camera at an image or text
To start Select to Speak, use your Select to Speak shortcut: Two finger swipe up (or three finger swipe if TalkBack is on), or tap the Accessibility button
Drag your finger across the screen, highlighting the text that you want to read.