iOS 18: "Speak Screen" is largely broken on iOS 18?

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mark_g2 Author

Level 1

5 points

iOS 18: "Speak Screen" is largely broken on iOS 18?

iOS Version: 18.3.2, iPhone SE 2020 (2nd gen)

I just updated to iOS 18 and was pleased in the first couple hours that

nothing huge had been broken, but the next day I tried the "Speak

Screen" feature and found it indeed is almost completely and amazingly

broken on my phone right now.

Issue 1 of 2: Speed-up to either 1.5 or 2x goes *way* too fast. I set

the phone to either 1.5x or 2x and it was *blitzing* through text in an

unbelievable way, so I decided to time it to confirm exactly what was

going on: I timed 2 paragraphs of a WSJ article and at normal, 1x

speed it was 1 min 13 seconds. At 1.5x speed it was **29 SECONDS**.

This means 1.5x speed is ACTUALLY OPERATING AT 2.5x! How could Apple

not be aware of this? Similarly, 2x went even faster...

Issue 2 of 2: Audio drops occur when using 1.5x or 2x. I am getting

little static audio drops at times during 1.5x or 2x playback. This

could be related to Issue 1, in the sense that the system is not

built to go 2.5x which is what it's actually doing at 1.5x, so something

else now breaks. Of course, NEVER, EVER have I had such a problem

with Speak Screen before, and previously I was using iOS 17.

iPhone SE, iOS 18

Posted on Mar 19, 2025 6:18 AM

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Answer 1

Alancito

Level 7

29,087 points

Apr 5, 2025 9:52 AM in response to Manullascard488

Manullascard488 wrote: "I can’t see the parts and service option in the settings/General/about menu. Is it because my iPhone is new from factory?..."

Manullascard ~ Yes, that's the reason and implies that that new-ish Apple battery is not causing the text to speech issue. So, as nobody else here has offered suggestions, consider contacting:

Apple Support

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Answer 2

Apr 4, 2025 12:18 AM in response to mark_g2

Same here with my iPhone 13 running iOS 18.3.2 or so, Spoken Content often stop Reading middle page. It has happened to me since it had iOS 17, and still happens on iOS 18. I’m using the Siri Voice 2, Spanish Mexico. I don’t use it with CarPlay nor bluetooths, since I just use my AirPods to listen to music.

Someone in an other thread I answered suggested that it was a battery issue. However, my battery has never been replaced, it’s in a good condition (96%) and I’ve owned this iPhone for more than a year, and as I’m a person with visual disabilities, this is pretty frustrating, since I’ve also faced bad instability issues with VoiceOver.

I’ve reboot my phone, reinstall the Voice countless times, clear settings, and even performed DFU restore using iTunes. However, nothing seems to fix these problems, unfortunately.

My iPad Pro 11in 4th gen doesn’t seem to have this issues, using the very same Siri voice 2, Spanish, Mexico, the other day I was able to hear the detailed forecast in the weather app without any problem, so it’s strange because my iPhone 13 will immediately either stutter or stop.

I’m still wondering if there’s a fix. Thank you

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Answer 3

Alancito

Level 7

29,087 points

Apr 4, 2025 4:38 AM in response to Manullascard488

Manullascard488 wrote: "...my battery has never been replaced, it’s in a good condition (96%)..."

Manullascard ~ Are you sure the battery wasn't replaced by a previous owner? ...Your iPhone 13 could be 3½ years old, but you've had it for only "more than a year." And that high 96% Maximum Capacity suggests that the battery may have been replaced. Please confirm that by going here:

Settings > General > About > (Parts & Service)

...Does it say anything there about the battery being "Unknown ⚠︎" like this?:

iPhone parts and service history - Apple Support

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Answer 4

mark_g2 Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 3, 2025 8:57 PM in response to mark_g2

I just did another update from iOS 18.3.2 to 18.3.4 and the problem is still happening exactly the same. Now just to clarify what the "Speak Screen" feature is, because folks may not be entirely aware: it is a very nice "Accessibility" feature that allows you to have Siri read something like a web page or an article out loud for you and this is and has been built into the iPhone for a long time. Let's say you're reading a web page and would like to hear it instead. You can engage Speak Screen. Let's say you have a long email open or a PDF open, the same. So it's a very handy feature and also a very critical feature for "accessibility" to those with let's say a sight impairment or disability. You turn on this feature via Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content > "Speak Screen" and then you activate it in any app by dragging two fingers down from the top of the screen, and it will start reading immediately. Very nice and generally works pretty well, though it seems to have at times a lot of issues getting past advertisements in the Apple News app.

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Answer 5

Apr 5, 2025 8:59 AM in response to Alancito

I can’t see the parts and service option in the settings/General/about menu. Is it because my iPhone is new from factory? I bought it in MediaMark from Vigo, when I was in Spain, and when I bought it, the battery condition was at 100%.

Talking about Spoken content, it seems to me that the text to speech engine is technically stopping from working while reading any web page

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Answer 6

mark_g2 Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 11, 2025 10:44 PM in response to mark_g2

Another reply here: I just tried Speak Screen on someone else's completely different phone, an iPhone 13 also with iOS 18, and sure enough, same exact problem.

I'm not sure if I've made it clear, but the idea here is that if Speak Screen is running at 2x, then a reading should take 1/2 the time. Does this make sense? So, for example, if a certain text takes 100 sec to read at 1x speed, then it should take 50 sec at 2x speed and 66 sec at 1.5x. (If operating at 1.5x speed, it should take 2/3 the time.)

As I already described, I have timed this and I will time it again right now and recap:

I have 3 paragraphs of text and it takes:

72 sec at 1x speed

28 sec at 1.5x speed (and 0.66 * 72 = 47.5 sec is expected)

18 sec at 2x speed (and 36 sec is expected)

As is plainly visible above, the iPhone is absolutely BLITZING through the text, and 2x is operating at near 4x speed. I can't believe I'm the only one noticing this.

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iOS 18: "Speak Screen" is largely broken on iOS 18?