changing the voice for Assisted Reader in the Kindle App

I could be wrong, but I think it will only use whatever voice you have set up in spoken content under your device's accessibility settings. I really hope there is a way to add the ai voices I've heard people out here talking about. If that ever happens, I might actually be able to use Kindle and enjoy it. Otherwise, if it's only the voices my iphone already has, it isn't all that different than what was already possible, at least to my ears.

How do I find this on IOS? As far as I was aware the only means of reading in the way you suggest is using apple's own accessibility tools.

Disclaimer: Please disregard this reply. The correct instructions are in my next reply. 😳

You can change the voice of Alexa from within the app, at any time, by saying something like, "Alexa, change voice". This will have the app start playing a list of sample voices for you to listen followed by 2 prompts; "Use this voice" or "Hear another".

This, however, only works for the Alexa app voice. As for the Assistive Reader, changing Spoken Content voices does nothing for Alexa, as it is its own system/speech engine. So far that I know, you can only change its settings on a genuine device such as a Kindle Scribe, for example.

Feel free to enlighten me if I am incorrect. 🙂

After doing some digging, I discovered that you can in fact change the voice of Assistive Reader, from inside the, Kindle app, not the, Alexa app. Here are the steps to do this, and apologies for my last reply:

Step 1:
1. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content. Tap here, then scroll down to Voices. Next, choose a voice, either standard or enhanced, and download as needed.
2. Tap on the voice once installed to 'select' it as your choice, then exit out of the Spoken Content settings.

Step 2:
1. Open the Kindle app on your iPhone, etc.
2. Go to Library, tap on any book in your Library.
3. Once in the book, double tap to bring up the menu at the top, then navigate to, "Reading Settings".
4. Navigate to the word, "More", and tap on it. Note this will likely not read as a button or anything.
5. You will now see, "Assistive Reader" settings.
6. Enable it, choose your speech rate, and whatever other settings you may want (there will be a few choices).
7. Navigate to the top of the screen and tap on close menu button.

Step 3:
1. Tap on the screen again to bring up the book menu.
2. At the end of the menu you will find play controls for Assistive Reader.
3. Enjoy your book.

I hope this helps everyone. It was a real pain in the a$$ to figure out. 😭

hi so can we lock the screen as reading this way?

I have VoiceOver on, I just do a two-finger swipe to start reading - it keeps going until I stop it. I stop it and then start it again. What's different about this compared to what the author of this post is saying? I real am bewildered.

It can be a different voice but it also works more like an audio book. You're quite right, there's not a huge difference, it's just a bit tidier and allows for a 'book voice' and a screen reader voice to be different.

Also, thanks for your instructions, Brian.

Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to change from daniel... I'm in the UK. I've changed it in the spoken settings in the IOS settings, but it doesn't seem to be working. Hmm.

I too am in the UK and don’t seem to be able to change the Kindle assistive reading voice to anything but Daniel. I pick a voice under spoken content and change it. However, when I go to play the kindle book it just speaks in Daniel‘s voice and quite slow.

You can change the rate if you double tap the book, go right to the end and just before play you can change the speed. 0.7, 1, 1.2, 1.5 etc. It doesn't seem to use the speed in the spoken settings in IOS settings at all, which suggests something there too.

Thanks Ollie. Got the speed changed now. Shane about only being able to use Daniel though. Unless there is something we are missing.

I've tried restarting apps, the ipHone too. I'm on a beta so was worried that was the issue but, assuming you're not on the beta, that's out. I've also tried a couple of different voices, siri, James and Sarina.

@Will, no unfortunately, you still need the Alexa app for that. You cannot even go to the Home screen, or app switcher, as either action will pause the playback.

@Assistive Intelligence, it is just another way of doing things. I posted instructions because the OP asked specifically for instructions on how to do this from inside the Kindle app. 🤷

@Ollie and Barbara, I, may, have a work-around for you guys. Because I have no clue as to why you cannot change your voices. I can use anything I have downloaded, with the exception of Siri voices. Downloaded or not, Kindle Assistive Reader will revert to Samantha whenever I attempt to set it to a Siri voice.

Anyway try:

1. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content.
2. Scroll down to Default Language. Should be immediately after Voices.
3. Set yours to English or Current Locale (choose the opposite of whatever is already selected, i.e. if Current Locale is selected, choose English, and vice versa). Mine is set to Current Locale, and works fine, "for me". I am in the US, but that really, really should not matter.

HTH. 🙂

Hi Brian, I followed your steps but still no luck. I changed from current locale to English, but still whatever Voice I select it reverses back to Daniel. Very frustrating.

Well, I am out of ideas at the moment. I have no idea why you guys cannot change your voice for Kindle's Assistive Reader.

Just to play the dreaded devil's advocate, you are doing this with the Kindle app? And not the Alexa app?

Apologies, but figured I'd double check. 😅

Yes, definitely doing it with the Kindle app

I think now, the juice isn't really worth the squeeze. It might have been nice, but, until there are some really great voices, it might not be worth all this bug chasing.

I like the idea of being able to start and stop reading with a two finger double tap. Just as with any other audio. It’s fine if you’re happy just to use Daniel. Personally I prefer to change the voice depending on the type of book I am reading. I will stick with it for now for the books I am happy to use Daniel, but hope for improvement in the future.

If I start reading with a two-finger downwards swipe, a two-finger tap stops and then starts reading...

Yes it does, but this is the two finger double tap just like when you start and stop music or an audiobook. Just another way of doing something.

Also, by using the magic tap you can turn speech off when you’re listening to your Kindle book as I usually do when listening to audiobooks, so you aren’t interrupted with any notifications.