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Google is launching “Listen to this page”, a text-to-speech enabler for Chrome on Android that will let you listen to the text on a website. Google has had a similar capability called “TalkBack” which was more for use by the visually impaired.
The main difference between “Listen to this page” and “TalkBack” is that there are more interactive options available in this new feature.
Coming in 12 languages like Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish, users can access controls to listen to the text on the web page that allow that allows them to:
- Play, pause, rewind, or fast forward while you read.
- Change the playback speed.
- Select your preferred voice.
- Turn on or off text highlighting & auto scroll.
Google added that the feature isn’t yet supported by all websites but if it is, you’ll find a “Listen to this page” option in the three dot menu (⋮) at the top right of your Chrome page. Simply press play to proceed or exit the page if you decide not to listen to it.
Even better, you can continue to browse the current website or switch to different tabs while you listen to a text. You can also continue to listen to the text-to-speech even if your screen is locked.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a definitive time when we’ll be getting this feature, just that it should be rolled out soon according to most online reports.
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