Chrome on Android can read webpages out loud from within the app

Chrome on Android can read webpages out loud from within the app

Illustration: The Verge

Google is rolling out a new option called “Listen to this page” that can read a webpage out loud to you from within the Android Chrome browser. The feature comes with playback controls similar to those you’d find in music or podcast players, letting you pause, change the reading speed, scrub forward, or skip ahead or back by 10 seconds at a time.

You can also change the voice it uses, as well as the language. The feature supports several, including English, French, German, Arabic, Hindi, and Spanish, according to a Google help page about the feature. To see if you have it, head to a page with a lot of text, then tap the three dots menu and “Listen to this page,” which should appear just below the Translate option.

Screenshots: Google Chrome

I recommend the breathy voice of Ruby: Mid-pitch, Calm.

You can also ask Google Assistant to read webpages out loud to you, and can even translate into other languages while it does so. But choosing that option takes you out of Chrome and into the Google app, whereas the new option keeps you in your browser.

Google has also tested the feature for Chrome on desktops. Safari for the iPhone has a similar feature called “Listen to Page” that reads webpages to you in Siri’s voice, with many of the same controls as Google’s. I only saw the new option while using the beta version of Chrome, but that’s fairly normal, since Google regularly handles its rollouts in phases. 9to5Google reports seeing it in version 125 of the Android Chrome app.