How to Turn Off AirPods Reading Notifications Aloud

If your AirPods have started narrating every text, email, or app alert the moment they arrive, you're experiencing Announce Notifications — an Apple feature that uses Siri to read incoming notifications aloud directly into your ears. It's genuinely useful in some situations and genuinely annoying in others. Here's exactly how it works, where to turn it off, and why the right setting depends on how and where you use your AirPods.

What Is "Announce Notifications" and Why Is It Happening?

Announce Notifications (called Announce Messages in older iOS versions) is a Siri feature built into iOS and iPadOS. When enabled, Siri intercepts incoming notifications — particularly iMessages, but potentially from other apps too — and reads them out loud through your AirPods without you touching your phone.

Apple introduced this to make AirPods more hands-free friendly, especially while driving, exercising, or cooking. The feature activates automatically when your AirPods are in your ears and your iPhone is locked. It doesn't require you to do anything — which is exactly why many users are caught off guard when it switches on.

This feature is available on AirPods Pro, AirPods (2nd generation and later), AirPods Max, and AirPods (3rd generation). It requires iOS 13.2 or later, though the expanded per-app controls came with later iOS updates.

How to Turn Off AirPods Reading Notifications — Step by Step

Turning Off Announce Notifications Completely

The most direct route is through Siri settings on your iPhone:

1. Open Settings
2. Tap Notifications
3. Tap Announce Notifications
4. Toggle Announce Notifications to off

Alternatively, you can reach the same toggle through:

Settings → Siri & Search → Announce Notifications

Both paths lead to the same master switch. Turning this off stops Siri from reading any notifications through your AirPods entirely.

Turning Off Notifications for Specific Apps Only

If you want Siri to keep reading some alerts — say, Messages — but stop reading others, you don't need to disable the feature globally. Under the Announce Notifications settings screen, you'll see a list of apps that have requested permission to use this feature. You can toggle individual apps on or off from that list.

This is the more surgical approach. It lets you keep hands-free message reading during a workout while preventing Siri from narrating every Slack ping or news alert.

Turning It Off While Already Wearing Your AirPods

If you're mid-conversation or mid-commute and just want to stop the narration immediately:

• Ask Siri directly: Say "Hey Siri, turn off Announce Notifications"
• Use Control Center: Some iOS versions surface notification toggles there
• Remove one AirPod: The feature pauses when AirPods detect they're out of your ears (using the optical sensors on supported models)

Removing an AirPod is the fastest physical workaround, though it's not a permanent fix.

The Variables That Change How This Works 🎧

Not every user experiences Announce Notifications the same way, and several factors affect which settings you'll need to adjust:

One often-overlooked variable is Focus mode. If you use Driving Focus or a custom Focus profile, Apple may automatically enable Announce Notifications within that Focus — meaning it only activates in specific contexts. Checking your Focus settings (Settings → Focus) is worth doing if the feature seems to turn on only at certain times.

When the Setting Seems to Come Back On

Some users turn off Announce Notifications only to find it re-enabling itself later. A few common causes:

• iOS updates can occasionally reset Siri-related preferences
• Driving Focus may have Announce Notifications enabled as part of its configuration, and enabling that Focus re-triggers the feature
• New app installations can request Announce Notifications access and appear enabled by default in the list

If the feature keeps returning, check both the master toggle and your Focus mode settings to see if they're working against each other.

Announce Messages vs. Announce Notifications — The Distinction Matters

Earlier iPhones running iOS 13 or 14 had a feature called Announce Messages with Siri, which was specifically scoped to iMessages and audio messages. Apple later broadened this into Announce Notifications, which covers a wider range of apps.

If you're on an older iOS version, the setting path may differ slightly — you might find it under Settings → Notifications → Announce Messages with Siri rather than the broader Notifications menu. The toggle works the same way, but the location and scope are narrower.

Different Setups, Different Solutions 🔇

A user who only wants to silence notification reading while at work — but keep it active during runs — will approach this differently than someone who wants it off permanently. Someone with AirPods Pro using Driving Focus will find the feature wired into their Focus configuration in a way that a casual AirPods user won't encounter.

The controls Apple provides are genuinely flexible: a master off switch, per-app toggles, and Focus-level overrides all exist. Which combination makes sense depends on whether you use Focus modes, how many apps you've granted notification access, and whether you want the feature available in any context at all — or gone entirely from your setup.