The Quickest Way to Turn Announce Messages with Siri Off & On

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Announce Messages with Siri allows Siri to announce and read text messages to you when you are wearing AirPods and Beats. This is handy while you're working out or your hands are occupied, but you'll also want to know how to stop Siri reading texts to you for those times when you don't need this feature.

Related: Apple AirPods, AirPods 2 & AirPods Pro Guide: Charging, Pairing, Setting Up, Using, More

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How to Turn Off Announce Messages & Turn It Back On Again 

Maybe you want Siri to read you messages through your AirPods or maybe you don't. Whatever your preference, if Siri isn't doing what you want, you'll want to know how to change that. Luckily, there is one very quick way to stop your AirPods reading your texts, or to enable them to do just that. Here's how to turn off your AirPods reading messages. To turn them on, just do the reverse!

Although you can turn on and turn off Siri reading texts in the Settings app, the fastest way to turn it on and off is in the Control Center. 

Before you customize your Control Center to include Announce Messages with Siri, you'll need to turn on Announce Messages (if you have first-generation AirPods, this feature may be called Announce Notifications) in your iPhone Settings. Then, add Announce Messages with Siri (or Announce Notifications) to your Control Center.   

1. Open your iPhone's Control Center by swiping down from the top right corner of your iPhone's screen if you have an iPhone X or later
   
   
2. If you have an iPhone 8 or earlier, swipe up from the bottom of your screen.
3. Tap the Announce Messages with Siri icon to turn the feature on, tap again to turn it off. (The icon will have a white background when it is on, and a gray background when off.)
   
   
4. Long press the Announce Messages with Siri icon to show a menu with more options, including On, Mute for 1 hour, or Off for the day. 
   
   
    

That's it! Now, you know how to have Siri announce and read new text messages when it's convenient and how to turn off message reading on AirPods when it's not. Also, if you don't like the idea of your iPhone's microphone listening to you, you can also turn off the Listen for "Hey Siri" setting. If you have iOS 16, you can also edit text messages and view the edit history of a text.