Chrome reading text on web pages for you so you don’t have to is not something new. But Google has improved this system with the intention of giving you an added advantage: that you can listen to the readings while you are doing other things. This way the use of your mobile phone will gain more dynamism and you will save a lot of work.
The version of Chrome for Android, which is usually the one that benefits the most from the latest developments in the browser or releases them first, has something new. As we indicated, this is an improvement to its system for reading the texts of the web pages we visit. Thanks to this new feature, the Listen to this page system improves and increases its level of accessibility.
A Chrome 130 addition
There are many changes and additions in Chrome 130 for Android and, as confirmed by 9 to 5 Google, one of them is the improved accessibility of Listen to this page. This function had already been revealed previously, but the moment when it would appear in the browser was still up in the air. However, until it reached the application, this improvement has gone through a long testing process. Initially, in June 2024, it was still considered an experimental feature that Google was working on testing.
With its entry on the scene, Chrome for Android no longer requires you to keep the app open while the assistant is reading the text. It wasn’t totally dramatic, since before you could switch tabs within the browser. When reading stopped it was only when we decided to exit the browser as an active window. It also stopped if we blocked the mobile screen. Luckily, all that is remembered thanks to this Chrome update.
How is this novelty introduced?
Google has looked for a simple and practical solution. Right off the bat, we can confirm that nothing happens if you switch to a different application. You also don’t have to worry if you turn off or lock your phone and the screen goes black. In all these cases, Chrome will continue reading the text you were viewing. Until then, everything is fine. Luckily, the rest has also materialized in a convenient way. Because what Google has done is put a multimedia player in the notification panel where we will see the Chrome indicator corresponding to the reading. And not only that, but we also have several control options. We can pause the reading, start it, rewind 10 seconds or skip 10 seconds. Therefore, there is no doubt that the system is really practical.
The player is so useful that it tells us the name of the page we are visiting and the title of the article, so we will be clear at all times what we are listening to. The rest of the options that are available in the reading system will require us to customize them from the application. There we have the opportunity, for example, to switch between different voices, adjust the reading speed or customize other parameters.
This is an important step forward in terms of increasing the accessibility options that Google Chrome has to satisfy users. At the end of the day, although the reading function was interesting, it always left on the table the problem of having to stay in Chrome for it to work. Now we can start reading and start doing whatever we want while we continue listening.
