What karaoke readback does
Karaoke readback shows your text and highlights each word as you read it out loud. The recognition is done by Apple's speech recognition on the device, so the highlight follows your voice rather than a timer: pause and it waits, speed up and it keeps up.
The highlight colour is yours to choose, which matters more than it sounds when you are reading from across a room.
Rehearsing a presentation
Paste the script in and read it through at the pace you will use on the day.
- Where the highlight lags behind you, you are probably rushing or swallowing words.
- Where you run out of breath before the sentence ends, the sentence is too long to say. Split it.
- Where you stumble on the same word twice, change the word. The audience will never know it was in the script.
- Read it through three times on different days. The third time shows what is still hard, rather than what was new.
Practising a language
The same feature is useful for learning to speak a language rather than read it. Read a paragraph aloud and watch which words are recognised as you say them. A word that will not highlight is a word you are not yet pronouncing so that a listener recognises it.
Pair it with a translation session to see how the other language handles the same ideas in conversation.
After the rehearsal
A rehearsal is also a draft. In a regular session you can deliver the talk to the assistant and ask what was unclear, what went on too long, what an audience would ask afterwards. That second opinion is cheaper the week before than the minute after.
Asked often enough to write down.
Does readback send my voice to the cloud?
Readback highlighting uses Apple's on-device speech recognition.
Can I use it for language practice?
Yes. Read text aloud in the language you are learning and see which words are recognised as you say them.
Can I change the highlight colour?
Yes, the highlight colour is your choice.
Read next
Practising for a job interview out loud, with an AI interviewer
The interview template as a mock interviewer: answer out loud, get feedback, and why the practice belongs before the interview, not during it.
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How to translate a conversation in real time on iPhone, iPad or Mac
Set up live speech translation, choose the target language, position your device and check the words that matter before relying on the result.
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