Which phone settings help you read with ADHD?

Why settings matter more on a phone

A phone is the most convenient reading device most of us own and the most distracting one. Every session starts on a lock screen full of notifications and passes a home screen full of other apps. Settings cannot make a phone into an e-reader, but they can remove most of the doors out of the book, and you only set them once.

Step 1: a Reading Focus on iPhone

Apple's Focus feature silences notifications except the people and apps you allow. Apple lists Reading among its provided Focus options, alongside Work, Personal and Sleep.

1. Open Settings, then Focus. Tap the add button and choose Reading (or Custom, and name it Reading).
2. Under People, allow only the people who must be able to reach you.
3. Under Apps, allow only your reading app, or nothing at all.
4. Choose a Home Screen page for this Focus that shows only your reading apps. Apple lets you link a Lock Screen or Home Screen page to a Focus to limit distractions.
5. Tap Add Schedule if you want it to turn on automatically at a set time, a place, or when you open a certain app. Setting it to turn on when you open your reading app means you never have to remember.

Step 1 on Android: Focus mode

Android's Digital Wellbeing includes Focus mode, which pauses the apps you choose: while it is on, you cannot use them and you do not get their notifications.

1. Open Settings, then Digital Wellbeing, then Focus mode.
2. Choose the apps to pause: social apps, messaging you can ignore for twenty minutes, games, the browser.
3. Tap Turn on now when you start reading, or Set a schedule for a regular reading time.
4. If you need a break, Take a break unpauses apps for a time limit you choose, so the exception is deliberate.

For night reading, Android's Bedtime mode can switch the screen to grayscale and dim the wallpaper on a schedule, which makes a phone much less tempting after dark.

Step 2: move the reading app, move everything else

Put your reading app (Kindle, Libby, Apple Books, Google Play Books, your audiobook app) on the first home screen, in the place your thumb goes first. Move social and news apps off the first screen, ideally into a folder on the last screen. You are not banning them; you are adding a few seconds of friction to the path out of the book, which is often enough.

Step 3: set the text once

Change one setting at a time and read half a page between changes. Raise line spacing first, then size, then widen margins. Our fonts and settings guide explains why spacing helps more than any special font.

• Kindle app: open a book, tap the middle of the page, then Aa. Amazon lists font size, font type (including OpenDyslexic), spacing between lines, paragraphs, words and characters, margins, and left-aligned or justified text.
• Libby: tap the middle of the page, then the reading settings icon. Drag the text scale slider, choose Bright, Sepia or Dark under Lighting, and pick OpenDyslexic under Book Design if you prefer it.
• Apple Books: open a book, tap the menu, then Themes & Settings. Tap the large or small A for size, choose a theme such as Quiet, and under Customize turn on the accessibility and layout options to adjust line, character and word spacing and margins.
• Whole phone: on iPhone, Settings, Accessibility, Display & Text Size for larger and bold text.

Step 4: let the phone read to you

When your eyes are done but you are not, switch to listening. On iPhone, Settings, Accessibility, Read & Speak: turn on Speak Screen, then swipe down with two fingers from the top of a page to hear it read aloud, with controls for speed. On Android, Select to Speak reads what you tap or select. Listening while following the highlighted text is immersion reading, which many ADHD readers find the easiest way to stay with a page.

Step 5: plan for the gap

Phones are where books get interrupted, so make coming back easy. Before you close the app, add a bookmark or a note with one line about where the story stands. If you return after weeks and the names mean nothing, a recap that stops at your place helps: Kindle's Story So Far for Kindle ebooks, Google Play Books' Catch me up for Play ebooks, or Magic Bookmark for print, ebook and audiobook copies of supported titles on iPhone. See coming back to a book you abandoned.

A two-minute pre-reading routine

1. Turn on your Reading Focus (or let the schedule do it).
2. Open the reading app from the first home screen.
3. Read your last note.
4. Start a ten-minute timer from the lock screen; see reading sprints.
5. Put the phone on a stand or flat on the table between pages, or in your pocket if you are listening.

When settings are not enough

If you still end up somewhere else every session, the device is the problem, not your settings. An e-reader cannot show a message; see best e-readers for ADHD. Or switch the phone to audio only and keep it in your pocket while you walk. Our reading on your phone with ADHD method covers the habits around these settings.