Chrome on Android introduces Listen to this Page feature

Last year, Google tested a read-aloud function for Chrome on desktop, but it has yet to be launched publicly. Now, a similar option is available to Chrome users on Android.

Google is introducing "Listen to this page" to the Chrome browser for Android. This feature allows you to hear a webpage read aloud and has playing settings similar to those found in music or podcast apps. You can pause, modify the reading pace, skip forward or backward 10 seconds, and navigate through the text.

When you select the "Listen to this page" option, a player will appear, complete with a progress meter, play/pause controls, and skip forward and rewind buttons. The player has two functions located in the lower corners.

On the left side, you can choose the playback speed from 0.8x to 4x. Meanwhile, the player's bottom-right corner features a triple-dot menu that allows you to access other settings such as Highlight Text & Auto Scroll and Voice.

You can also modify the voice and change the language.According to Google's help page, this tool supports multiple languages including English, French, German, Arabic, Hindi, Spanish, and Japanese.

To see if you have it, go to a text-heavy page, then press the three-dot menu. Look for "Listen to this page," which is located immediately below the Translate option.

You may even have Google Assistant read webpages aloud and translate them into other languages simultaneously. However, selecting this option takes you from Chrome to the Google app, whereas the new functionality allows you to stay in your browser.

This tool is especially useful if you want to catch up on the news while multitasking. Safari for iPhone features a similar function called "Listen to Page," which reads webpages using Siri's voice and has controls comparable to Google's.

Google appears to be gradually pushing out this functionality with Chrome version 125, so you may not notice it right away. If you haven't received it yet, don't worry—it's on the way.