Google Chrome for Android is getting a handy new feature that will read webpages to users.
Spotted by 9to5Google, the browser uses text-to-speech (TTS) tech to power a ‘Listen to this page’ feature. Users can access the feature by tapping the three-dot menu button in the top-right corner of the browser.
Tapping ‘Listen to this page’ will open a playback menu with pause/play controls, options to skip forward and backward, and a progress indicator/scrub bar. Additionally, there are playback speed options ranging from 0.5x to 4x.
Chrome’s Listen to this page feature. | Image credit: 9to5Google
A menu in the playback controls includes options for highlighting text and auto scrolling, as well as four different voice options in U.S., U.K., Indian, and Australian English.
9to5 notes that users can listen to websites even if they lock their phone or open another tab, but they must keep Chrome open. Closing Chrome stops playback.
‘Listen to this page’ is not widely rolled out yet — in my testing, I wasn’t able to access the feature on my Pixel 8a. However, it’s arriving as part of Chrome version 125 and 9to5 reports that users can manually toggle it on via the ‘chrome://flags/#read-aloud’ flag.
Source: 9to5Google
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