Chrome on Android can now read the web, as a new update improves app accessibility
Chrome on Android can now read as Google rolls out a new accessibility feature called Listen to This Page to the mobile app, which gives the browser text-to-speech capabilities.
According to the official Chrome help pagethe tool can be accessed by tapping the three-dot menu in the top right corner. The new functionality can be found in the fourth section of the browser menu.
Activating the feature will bring up an audio controls panel at the bottom of the screen with a wide range of options. You’ve got your standard set of tools like a progress indicator, a play/pause button, plus the website name and page at the top, alongside additional controls seemingly inspired by YouTube.
You get an option of 10 second rewind and 10 second fast forward, plus the ability to change the playback speed. Users can slow things down to half the speed or up to four times the normal display.
You can push the audio player down to hide most controls. The only two things that remain on the screen are the play/pause button and the name of the website. As for the length of playback, it completely depends on the length of the article.
For example, our recent article on DJI drones is about 14 minutes long, while our piece on The Lego Movie is almost seven minutes long.
Packed with features
So far everything is superficial, but you’ll find more in the overflow menu. According to 9To5Google, you can disable the text highlighting and auto-scrolling features in this section. Additionally, here you can change the speaking voice language with 12 in total, including a choice of English, Spanish, Hindi, French and Arabic.
You can also customize the way text is read to suit a particular style. For example, ‘Ruby’ speaks in a medium and warm voice, ‘Moss’ has a low, peaceful way of talking, while ‘Field’ is low and clear.
The options increase if you also look at other dialects. In English you can choose from ten voices and four different accents. The American accent has the most possibilities, with four voices of its own, while the rest only have two.
Availability
Listen to this page continues to work even if you switch to other tabs because βthe control bar remains stuck.β But there is a limitation. This only works as long as Chrome is in the foreground. So if you close the browser or return to the home screen, the text-to-speech feature will stop.
The feature is part of the latest Chrome on Android update, so make sure you install the latest patch. You may not see the option in the browser menu.
We did not come across it at first, although you can activate it manually. All you have to do is type chrome://flags/#read-aloud in the URL bar and enable the tool in the next menu.
It’s unknown if there are plans to expand Chrome’s text-to-speech feature elsewhere, but there’s a chance Google will. A September 2023 leak claimed that Chrome on desktop will one day get its own reading feature.
Check out Ny Breaking’s list of the best Android phones for 2024 if you’re looking to upgrade.