How Do I Get AirPods To Read My Texts?
Apple over the years has been able to maintain its status, to produce high-quality products that suit the rising customer demands.
AirPods, excluding the 1st Generation, have been modified so that the wearer can comfortably listen to text messages sent to them.
This is a great feature from the tech company that has made it easy for the users not always to have to view their messages while walking on the road or even when driving.
How Do I Get AirPods To Read My Texts?
Getting AirPods to read your text messages is very simple. Apple’s virtual assistant Siri plays a crucial role in ensuring that the users of the AirPods get to listen to their text messages sent to them. With the Announce Messages feature turned on, Siri can access your incoming messages and read them to you.
Interestingly, this feature is only available when your device is locked because it means you can reply with your device unlocked.
You must ensure your AirPods are on and connected.
Note that your device must be an iPhone 6S, iPad Air 2, iPod Touch 7th Generation, or iOS 13 later.
With this feature on, Siri announces the name of the sender and reads you the message sent. If the sent message is too long, Siri will not read the whole text.
However, if you still want the long message read to you, you will request Siri to read, after which Siri says they have sent you a text.
To turn on Announce Messages with Siri, you need to follow the following steps.
- Navigate the Settings App on your phone.
- Select Notifications from the menu bar if you are running with iOS 14 or later.
If you are running on iOS 13, go to “Siri & Search.”
- Tap Announce Messages with Siri.
- Turn on Announce Messages with Siri.
- Finally, tap the Messages button at the bottom of the page.
With the Announce Messages with Siri feature, you can choose from your contacts who to receive messages from, whether from your most recent contacts, your favorites or from all contacts, which means anyone who sends you a message.
Can My AirPods Only Read My English Texts Only?
No, Siri is configured to read messages sent in the set languages.
Apple has many languages that Siri can operate with.
However, they have not reached the maximum number of languages, but they are working on updating languages to suit the needs of their growing customer population.
Siri does not have to match the language settings of your iPhone directly, and therefore it all depends on the language you are using to communicate with.
Even so, Apple has not been able to ensure most native languages, especially the African languages, are configured in Siri, and therefore Siri does not support the languages.
How Do I Configure My AirPods To Read My WhatsApp Texts?
To listen to any audio in your iPhone using your AirPods, for example, your incoming texts, hands-free, you must make sure that your AirPods are configured to use Siri.
As a personal virtual assistant built, Siri is able to ask Siri to send WhatsApp texts and read the incoming WhatsApp messages.
However, these features are only available on iOS 10.3 or later and WhatsApp Messenger version 2.17.20.
To enable Siri to reply to your WhatsApp messages, you can consider the following procedure:
- First, navigate the Settings in your iPhone.
- Tap Siri & Search
- Turn on Listen for “Hey Siri” or press the Side Button for Siri. Then, for the iPhone SE (2020) or later, click Home for Siri.
- Navigate down and click WhatsApp.
- Finally, turn on Use with Siri.
However, if Siri reads your WhatsApp texts, the sender does not get the two blue ticks to show that you have read.
Can I Reply Messages Read To Me By Siri Through My AirPods?
You often find yourself engaged, with your hands not free, for example, when driving or at the gym.
With your AirPods in your ears, you can listen in and reply to these messages with the help of Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant.
The messages may be from WhatsApp Messenger or your iPhone’s messenger app.
You first need to ensure that you have turned on the Announce Messages with Siri turned on.
However, that flow can easily be disrupted, especially when Siri reads back your drafted texts.
To be able to reply to your incoming texts, I recommend the following procedure:
- First, go to Settings on your iPhone.
- Then, tap “Siri & Search.”
- Then Click on Announce Messages with Siri and Enable the Reply Without Confirmation toggle.
With that, you can be able to receive your messages and reply to your messages hands-free.
In addition, anytime you receive multiple messages simultaneously, you can pause Announce Messages with the Siri feature by taking out one of your AirPods.
That way, you can listen to your multiple messages and reply to them one at a time without necessarily using your iPhone.
Can Announce Messages Work With AirPods Connected To My Android Phone?
No. The functionality of AirPods is limited when they are configured to an Android phone.
In addition, when customized with an Android Phone, some of the features available with an iOS device become limited.
The Announce Messages with Siri feature works when the AirPods have access to Siri.
Unfortunately, Siri is one of the features lost when your AirPods connect to an Android device.
This, therefore, means that you cannot receive and reply to messages hands-free whenever your AirPods are paired to an Android device.
How Do I Turn Off The Announce Messages From Reading My Texts?
Even if Apple created the Announce Messages with Siri feature as a helpful one, it is very annoying sometimes, especially when your music gets interrupted by Siri, who has to announce an incoming message.
Therefore, you can consider stopping Siri from reading your messages and reducing interruptions when enjoying your music.
To disable the Announce Messages with Siri Feature, follow do the following:
- First, navigate the Settings App on your iPhone.
- Select Notifications.
- Tap Announce Messages with Siri
- Tap on the toggle to disable the feature. You can also consider turning off the feature on Specific applications within your iPhone.
Sometimes you want to temporarily disable your Announce Messages feature for some time to avoid disruptions.
You may consider some options to ensure that you do not fully disable Siri from reading your messages.
Some of these options are:
You can toggle the Control Center Option. By doing this, Siri will be stopped from reading your incoming messages for one hour.
You can also choose to receive messages from specific contacts on your phone.
Therefore, Siri will only read messages sent to you by specific contacts. First, go to the Settings app > Notifications > Announce Messages with Siri. Then tap on the Messages app and select who Siri can announce messages from.
From there, you can choose to receive messages from fewer people.
You can also pull out your AirPod from your ear and, by doing so, pause Siri. Even if you put it back, your AirPods Siri won’t continue to read the message.
What Do I Do When Announce Messages With Siri Is Not Working?
As stated earlier, the Announce Messages with Siri feature works on iOS 14.3 or later. However, sometimes you may find the feature unavailable on your phone although it is running on the required iOS.
You can resolve this issue by:
- Restarting your iPhone. Do this using one of the two-button combinations or the force-restart procedure. After doing this, navigate your settings App> Go to “Siri & Search” from here choose Announce Messages and toggle on Announce Message with Siri.
- You can also consider Forget your AirPods. Then you will place your AirPods in their charging case and try to re-connect your AirPods. After doing this, on the screen, Announce Messages will appear. Tap to complete the pairing process. Go to the Settings App > “Siri & Search”> and you will find it enabled
Closing Thoughts
Using AirPods to listen to messages has helped a lot.
When driving, for example, this great feature has helped reduce the risk of accidents occurring when driving.
In addition, whenever one receives a text, they don’t have to take their iPhones and start texting back.
This would be a disruption.
Instead, with iPhone’s feature, Announce Message With Siri and your AirPods, you can receive and reply to messages.
This feature is also helpful when one is in the gym.
When doing workouts, one does not always have to take their iPhones to reply to their incoming messages; rather, they can reply by using this feature.
This helps save time as one does not always have to move to reply to their incoming messages.