Galaxy S8 And Galaxy S8 Plus: Read My Text Messages

As you probably know, Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus smartphones feature an interesting read text function. Contrary to what many believe, this isn’t dedicated to visually impaired persons as it will constantly speak in real time whatever happens on the screen, what you do, where you tap, what a newly entered notification says and so on.

All these being said, have you ever thought about using dictation for the sole purpose of having the device reading your text messages? Can you picture yourself saying out loud “read my last text message” and your Galaxy device doing just that?

Since you’ve made such a great choice and opted for a Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus instead of any other model out there, you will be spared from having to download a text-to-speech app from the Play Store and benefit from the entire above.

No, your smartphone already knows how to speak translations and, therefore, read you messages, books, and many other awesome things. To top it off, you can have your Galaxy S8 Plus read my text messages in many languages other than English.

If we’ve made you curious, here’s the essential. In order to set up your device to read text, you will have to “teach” it how to go to the last text message in your inbox and also to tweak a couple of other options:

Access the Home screen;
Swipe down the Notification shade;
Hit the gear icon to enter the Settings;
Tap on System;
Select Languages and Input;
Tap on the Speech section;
Select the Text-to-speech option;
Decide what TTS engine you prefer:
- Google Text-to-speech engine;
- Samsung Text-to-speech engine;
Tap on the Settings icon next to your desired search engine;
Tap on Install Voice Data;
Tap on the Download button;
Wait for the download process to finish and hit the back key once;
Tap on Language.

You’re almost done, though you will still have to:

Return to the Home screen;
Select the Apps folder;
Launch the S Voice;
Tap on the Recent Apps key;
Tap on the Set Driving Mode On and turn it Off;
Hit the Recent Apps key once again;
Tap on the Set Driving Mode Off.

Now you can officially use your Samsung Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8 Plus with the voice command “read my text messages”. And if you’ve paid close attention, you also know that you can configure your smartphone to read you the messages in other languages, not just in English.