Applies ToOutlook for Microsoft 365 Outlook 2024 Outlook 2021 Outlook 2019 Outlook 2016

Important: Outlook Mobile retired the Play My Emails feature in June 2024. To learn more, see End of support for Cortana.

There are many reasons to listen to an email, such as proofreading, multitasking, or increased comprehension and learning. Outlook makes listening possible by using the text-to-speech (TTS) ability of your device to play back written text as spoken words.  

There are multiple tools for listening to your emails in Outlook: 

  • Read Aloud reads all or part of your email.

  • Speak reads only the text you've selected. Speak is available for Windows only. For more information about Speak, see Use the Speak text-to-speech feature to read text aloud.

  • Speech is a built-in accessibility feature of MacOS. When you set up Speech preferences in your Mac system preferences, you can select text and have it read by pressing a keyboard combination you’ve defined.

Turn Read Aloud on or off in Outlook

  1. Select File > Options > Accessibility.

  2. Under Application display options, select or clear the Show Read Aloud checkbox.

    Options for Read Aloud

Let Outlook read your messages to you

On the Home tab, select Read Aloud. The Read Aloud controls appear in the upper right and is playing by default.

Select Read Aloud

  • To pause Read Aloud, select Pause.

  • To move from one paragraph to another, select Previous or Next.

  • To exit Read Aloud, select Stop (x).

Turn on Read Aloud in an open email message

On the Message tab, in the Immersive section, select Read Aloud.

Change Read Aloud settings 

Select the gear icon in the controls at the top right.

Read Aloud settings

  • Use the Reading speed slider to change the reading speed.

  • Under Voice Selection, select the voice you want.

Keyboard shortcuts 

You can easily control Read Aloud using the following keyboard shortcuts in Windows: 

CTRL + Alt + Space

Start Read Aloud

CTRL + Space

Play or pause Read Aloud

CTRL + Left Arrow

Skip to start of previous paragraph

CTRL + Right Arrow

Skip forward to start of next paragraph

Alt + Left Arrow

Decrease reading speed

Alt + Right Arrow

Increase reading speed

Increase reading speed 

Listen to your documents with Speak 

Speak is a built-in feature of Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Speak reads aloud only the text you select. Read Aloud reads the entire document starting from your cursor location like an audiobook.  

To use Speak:  

  1. Select a word or block of text in your document.

  2. In the Quick Access Toolbar, select the Speak selected text icon.

Tip: For instructions about how to add the Speak icon to your Quick Access Toolbar, see the help article Use the Speak text-to-speech feature to read text aloud

Supported languages 

Read Aloud uses the proofing language set for the document. To change the language, see the help article Fix text-to-speech reading in wrong language.  

Voices 

Depending on your platform, text-to-speech (TTS) uses software that comes built into your device or through a Microsoft service. The voices available will differ between TTS services. If you’re using Immersive Reader, see the help article Download voices for Immersive Reader, Read Mode, and Read Aloud for more information. 

Our team is working on making voices sound more natural, so keep looking for improvements. 

Troubleshooting 

If you don’t see Read Aloud available, make sure that you’re signed into your Microsoft 365 account, and then try restarting Outlook or logging out and back in. 

Privacy 

Read Aloud doesn’t store your content or audio data. Microsoft uses your content only to provide you with audio results. For more information about experiences that analyze your content, see Connected Experiences in Office.

See Also

Listen to your email messages in Outlook for Mac

Office Accessibility Center

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