Skip to Content

Is Your TV Constantly Talking To You? How To Turn Off TV Narration

If you hear a voice narration when performing an action on your TV, it means someone turned on an accessibility function. This becomes very annoying, especially when you know what you’re doing, but the TV insists on explaining anyways. So, how do you stop your TV from constantly talking to you?

To turn off TV narration, press the Accessibility, AD, or Audio Description button on your remote control. Next, follow the instructions on your TV screen to deactivate voice assistance. You can also navigate to the settings, then to the audio section, to look for these functions there.

While the narration feature is essential for some people, it’s certainly not necessary for others. Let’s take a look at why modern smart TVs often include this feature and how to disable it altogether.

Why Is There a Narrator on Your TV?

Hand holding TV remote control with a television and bird screen

The narrator in your TV is an audio setting that provides information on important visual elements of a TV program. It also explains various menu options, channels, and volume levels. This is useful for those who need more help understanding what’s displayed on the screen.

Since the feature, known on some systems as TalkBack, reads out captions displayed on the screen, it comes in handy for visually impaired people. They can easily follow what’s showing on the screen without looking at it.

What’s more, the narration feature allows your smart TV to work with third-party apps like eClip so it can read out information about films playing on your TV.

If you’re hearing audio descriptions on your TV, it’s likely because someone in your household turned it on by mistake. For example, pressing and holding the remote volume button on most Samsung smart TVs quickly turns on the Accessibility feature. 

It’s therefore easy to activate the narration by accident. Otherwise, someone could’ve turned on the voice guidance intentionally.

How Do You Turn Off Narration on Your TV?

Generally, you can turn off the narration through your remote control or using your TV’s on-screen options. Turning off Accessibility settings on your TV stops it from narrating or announcing everything highlighted on the display. 

If you’re using the remote control, look for a button labeled Accessibility, Audio Description, AD, Smarthub, or Language. Of course, the label all depends on your TV make and model, but most major brands should have one of these options.

Press the Accessibility button (or a similar option that you’ve found) and follow the on-screen instructions to deactivate voice narration. For some TV remotes, you have to press the Settings button and then navigate to audio settings on the screen.

To disable the audio narration using the TV on-screen options, you have to navigate to the Accessibility section in settings. 

Some TVs also have an option for a secondary language, through which you can access the audio description. It could be labeled “Eng.” or “English.” Panasonic receivers have the secondary language option displayed as “Aus.”

These are the general steps for turning off narration on your TV:

  1. With the TV powered on, press the Menu button on your remote.
  2. Navigate to the System option using the arrow keys and press Enter.
  3. Select Accessibility and go to the Narration, Audio Guidance, or Audio Description feature.
  4. Set the narration feature to Off, save the changes, and exit.

That’s it. The audio narration should now be completely disabled. The steps may vary a little bit, in which case you should refer to your TV manual. If you can’t access the settings and the narration is still bothering you, your best bet is to contact your device’s support center.

How to Stop Your TV From Narrating Shows

To stop your TV from narrating shows, you must disable the audio description setting on your streaming app. For example, you must disable the narrator on Amazon Prime to enjoy the streaming experience. You can aslo reboot your TV if the problem persists. 

Here’s a quick review of how to turn off TV narration:

  1. Open the Settings menu and go to General.
  2. Open the Accessibility tab.
  3. Navigate to the Audio Description option and turn it off.

You can then return to your streaming app and enjoy your movie experience.

Some TV models and receivers also allow you to turn off audio descriptions for specific channels. But if you can’t find that option, try a hard reset of your TV. To do this, turn off your TV, unplug the power cord, then reconnect it after 3 minutes. 

While this is a quick way to clear settings, including the narration, it may not work for all TV models. Make sure to reference the manual or contact your TV manufacturer’s customer support for the exact instructions for your model.

Does Narration Affect All Programs When Turned On?

African family watching television together

If someone accidentally enabled the narration or TalkBack feature on your TV, it will affect all programs that support the feature.

However, the audio description may not work with some streaming services like Netflix. Also, it’s a feature that TV companies introduced in the early 2010s, so some TV models will only narrate when there’s text to be displayed. This usually includes menu items.

Moreover, narration won’t work with most external devices, including video game consoles, Blu-ray, and cable boxes.