On Android, Chrome can now read web pages aloud

After several months of adjustment and work on this new feature, Google is releasing its new feature today.Listen to this page” on Android devices using a technology of text-to-speech. The objective of this function is simple: to allow Internet users who wish to do so to have a page particularly concentrated in text read by a voice: it is therefore an accessibility option for visually impaired users for example, but also a means to users in a hurry to listen to the content of a page rather than reading it.

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Updated text-to-speech

The usage options allowed by Chrome are quite exhaustive: it is thus possible to start reading or pause it, or even go back or fast forward. This mode also allows you to change the reading speed, select another voice for reading or activate/deactivate text highlighting and/or automatic scrolling. To use it, simply go to a particularly text-rich web page, then press the three small vertical dots, select the “More“, and choose “Listen to this page“.

Note that it is possible, via this method, to read a page translated into another language. If, for example, you access a page whose text is written entirely in English, it is possible to set the function to allow the voice to read this text to you directly translated into French: to do this, translate the page first, then select the “Listen to this page” option once the translation is complete. The text will then be read in the language that appears on the screen. Note also that this option is not accessible for all pages. If a site does not support this function, it will not be displayed among the Google Chrome options.

For now, “Listen to this page” is not yet accessible on iOS. On Apple smartphones, two different methods allow you to benefit from a similar option: it is possible to go through native iOS text reading if you are on a page open from Google Chrome, but the latter only allows you to read the text selected or visible on the screen. You can otherwise use Safari, which benefits from a similar function called “.Listen to this page“.