Google Chrome On Android Recently Introduced “Listen To This Page”
It was recently we reported that Google introduced a new feature to Google Chrome on Android called Listen to This Page. As you might expect based on the name, it is a feature that allows you to have any article or webpage that you’re currently on, read out to you instead of having to squint to read tiny text or throw away everything else that you’re doing to read an article that’ll take you 10 minutes.
It’s a very useful feature, very clearly, and it brings quite a few features that make it even more worth it. For instance, you’ll have the power to modify the playback speed, in case you find the page being read too slow or too fast for you; you’ll be able to rewind or fast-forward; you can change the voice that’s speaking to you, and you can also toggle text highlighting so you see exactly which part is being read.
You can easily access it from any webpage by clicking the three dots in the upper right corner of Chrome and then selecting “Listen to this page”. It’ll get to work on your behalf right away, and you can even keep browsing other tabs in Chrome as it reads on.
Very Soon, You Should Be Able To Listen To A Page Even With Chrome In The Background
The only thing is, the moment you leave Chrome, the audio playback will stop. That means you can’t get back to your Candy Crush session as the article reads on, which makes it a little less flexible than most people would like. The fortunate part is that is going to change soon.
According to MSPowerUser, Google has a flag in Chrome for Android that enables background playback for the Read Aloud feature. It’s currently not active, but once it is, you’ll be able to have Chrome reading an article for you as you go and do other things on your smartphone, similar to podcast apps and music streaming services.
Of course, this is more of a milestone for the Android version of Google Chrome. The desktop version continues to read your web pages aloud even when Google Chrome is minimized and another application has been opened to take its place. However, unlike Chrome on Android, you won’t be able to continue to listen when another tab is open.
