Tuning the voice and the reading to you

What the questions at the start set

The first time you open Scia, it asks a few questions — “How is your vision?”, “How old are you?” and so on, four at most. Your answers tune the voice, the display and the reading.

Your vision: Sets how photos are told (the setting for colour and light). If you answer that seeing is hard, it also asks in what way; answers such as “bright light is painful” or “easier to see with fewer colours” also change the colour filter on the camera screen.
Your age: Sets the reading speed and the word style.
Read aloud automatically?: Asked only if you answer that you cannot see, or that seeing is hard. Say yes, and each story or description is read aloud the moment it is ready.

Any question can be skipped with Decide later. There is no way to answer them again, but everything they set can be changed later in Settings. It does not ask whether you use VoiceOver; the app notices and adjusts by itself.

Settings: Made for you

Settings opens from the gear button on the Memories list or the camera screen. The first section is Made for you. Leave most rows on Automatic, and they follow your answers to the questions at the start.

Word Style: Easy words / Standard / Polite and slow.
Color and Light: As is / Restrained / Memory evoking / Tactile metaphor. The differences are on the accessibility page.
Differentiate Without Color: Nothing is conveyed by a difference in colour alone. Turns on by itself if the iPhone’s own Differentiate Without Colour is on.
Reading speed: Slow / Standard / Fast. This is where the pace of the voice is set.
Appearance: Match System / Light / Dark. In Light, stories appear on warm, paper-coloured pages. The camera screen always stays dark.

If in doubt, Reset all to automatic at the bottom of the section returns Word Style, Color and Light, and Differentiate Without Color to the values your first answers gave. Text size follows the iPhone’s own text size setting.

Settings: When you listen

Auto-play: When a story or description is ready, reading starts straight away. Turn it off to play things yourself when you want.
Read chapter titles: When you listen through several chapters, each title is read in the same voice as the text.
The pulse of the voice: The iPhone gently vibrates with the reading: Off / Pauses only / Follow the voice. You can also choose Haptic dynamics (Gentle / Vivid).
Silence guidance in silent mode: In silent mode, the spoken guidance stops; stories and diaries are still read. With VoiceOver on, this row does not appear and sound always plays.
Speak Announcements: Tells you, in a voice, how a story is coming along while it is being made. Choose its voice in Choose the guidance voice, one for Japanese and one for English.

Choose the reading voice

From Choose the reading voice under When you listen, you can give each kind of text its own voice. Touch a voice’s name and it reads a sample.

Story Voice: The voice that reads stories. This is also where you choose the kind of voice (the three below). You can give bright and quiet stories their own voices, too: Voice for Bright Stories and Voice for Quiet Stories.
Description Voice: The voice that reads photo descriptions. The two tones can have their own voices: Polite Voice and Friendly Voice.
Scia’s voice: The voice Scia uses when it speaks to you. The letter for the month arrives in this voice.
Diary Voice: The voice that reads diaries.
English: The voice for text translated into English. It appears once you have translated something.

Kinds of voice

The iPhone’s voice (system voice): On every plan. Download an “Enhanced” voice in the iPhone’s Settings under Accessibility → Spoken Content → Voices, and it becomes much easier to listen to.
Multilingual voices: AI voices, thirteen to choose from, on the Supporter plan and above. Stories made with story credits on the free plan are read in these voices too.
Natural Japanese voices: Japanese voices where you can choose the speaker and the speaking style. On the Master plan, or with the Natural Japanese Voice add-on for Standard and above.

The voices chosen here are used for chapters you make from now on. To change the voice of a chapter you already have, use Change reading voice in that chapter’s ⋯ menu at the top right. For chapters in a book, Change reading voices in the book’s ⋯ menu changes them all at once.

Voices your plan does not include can still be heard as a sample.

With the screen off

Switch to another app or lock the screen, and the reading carries on. From the Lock Screen, Control Centre or AirPods you can play, pause, and move to the previous or next chapter.