On Android, Chrome can now read web pages aloud

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

Updated text-to-speech

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

Currently, Listen to this page is not yet accessible on iOS. On Apple smartphones, two methods allow you to benefit from a similar option: it is possible to go through native iOS text reading if you are on an open page of Google Chrome, but the latter does not allow you to read only the text selected or visible on the screen. Alternatively, you can use Safari, which has a similar feature called Listen to This Page.