So technically this isn't a freebie, but a workaround that gets Siri to read the book for you.
Here's what you have to do:
1) go to settings > general > accessibility > speech and enable "speak screen"
2) navigate to the Kindle app and open the book you'd like Siri to read to you
3) swipe down with two fingers and Siri will start reading to you. You can adjust speed and skip paragraphs in a new overlay that will pop up. You can swap voices in the accessibility > speech settings pane.
What's especially incredible is that you can navigate to other apps by pressing the home button and Siri will automatically turn pages for you too.
While punctuation is sometimes ignored by Siri between paragraphs, this is still cheaper than purchasing the audiobook outright.
I hope this can be helpful to some of you who use Kindle on iPhone or iPad and find listening to books easier. I also hope that I'm not the last one discovering this workaround, in which case, be kind!
By the way, this also works for The Guardian app.
This was tested and works on iPhone and iPad running iOS 9.3.3
11 comments
FinderOfDeals
23 Jul 16#1
It would great if there was a way to do this on Android!
sebrichter to FinderOfDeals
23 Jul 16#2
I wasn't sure if it already did work on android. Sorry to hear it doesn't. Does it work on kindle fire?
VampyRagDoll
23 Jul 16#3
To the best of my knowledge you can get your books read to you with the fire
sebrichter to VampyRagDoll
23 Jul 16#4
Yea, I thought so too, still not a reason to get one :wink:
sebrichter
23 Jul 16#5
Screenshot to step 1
Screenshot to step 3
teerex
24 Jul 161#6
Thanks for the tip
GDB2222
24 Jul 16#7
Very ingenious. :smiley:
Sadly, the quality of the speech is not very good, obviously because the machine doesn't understand the content.
sebrichter
24 Jul 161#8
I agree it's not as good as a proper audio book, but it's not as bad as Siri used to be - especially if you pick an "enhanced" voice
joyf4536
24 Jul 16#9
I can actually read so I don't have a great need for this but as GDB222 says "Very ingenious"
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Opening post
Here's what you have to do:
1) go to settings > general > accessibility > speech and enable "speak screen"
2) navigate to the Kindle app and open the book you'd like Siri to read to you
3) swipe down with two fingers and Siri will start reading to you. You can adjust speed and skip paragraphs in a new overlay that will pop up. You can swap voices in the accessibility > speech settings pane.
What's especially incredible is that you can navigate to other apps by pressing the home button and Siri will automatically turn pages for you too.
While punctuation is sometimes ignored by Siri between paragraphs, this is still cheaper than purchasing the audiobook outright.
I hope this can be helpful to some of you who use Kindle on iPhone or iPad and find listening to books easier. I also hope that I'm not the last one discovering this workaround, in which case, be kind!
By the way, this also works for The Guardian app.
This was tested and works on iPhone and iPad running iOS 9.3.3
11 comments
Screenshot to step 3
Sadly, the quality of the speech is not very good, obviously because the machine doesn't understand the content.