Minecraft narrator: turn it off, change it, or give your map real voices
Minecraft has a built-in narrator that reads chat and menu text aloud, a useful accessibility feature that many players first meet when it switches on by accident. This guide explains how it works in Java Edition and how to turn it off for good, following the Minecraft Wiki.
At the end you will find how to give your own maps and servers voiced lines that sound better than a system voice.
Turn the narrator on or off
In Java Edition, press Ctrl+B, or Cmd+B on a Mac, to switch the narrator on or off, or change it in the accessibility settings. Bedrock Edition calls the same feature text to speech; look for it in the Accessibility section of the settings.
Stop Ctrl+B from turning it on
If the narrator keeps switching on while you play, it is usually the Ctrl+B shortcut. Since Java 1.20.2 the accessibility settings have a Narrator Hotkey option that disables the shortcut, so the narrator only changes when you choose it in the menu.
All, Chat or System
The narrator has four modes: Off; All, which reads chat and system messages; Chat, which reads only player messages; and System, which reads only interface text, command output and notifications. Chat is handy on a busy server when you want to hear messages without the menus.
Language, voice and volume
The narrator speaks with a voice of your operating system, so its language follows the system and cannot be changed in the game; on Linux it needs the Flite speech package. In recent Java versions its loudness follows the Voice slider in the sound settings.
Give your map real voices
The narrator reads text with a system voice; it cannot play a character. For voiced NPCs, quest givers or a narrator in an adventure map, make the lines as sound files and add them with a resource pack, or with the AudioPlayer mod on a Fabric server. Hear voices free on their pages with a line of 30 to 100 characters, and voice whole sets offline with the free SuperClonica engine.