Chrome’s studying mode would possibly learn articles out loud

Google is experimenting with a text-to-speech characteristic for Chrome’s studying mode on desktop, as reported by Android Police. I generally use the same characteristic in Instapaper, and in Chrome, I may see it being a great tool to hearken to articles within the browser I’m already utilizing whereas I work.

The characteristic can apparently be present in Chrome Canary, Google’s bleeding edge model of Chrome, according to X user Leopeva64. If in case you have the characteristic, you possibly can click on a play button on the prime of an article you’re in studying mode to have Google learn the textual content. Leopeva64 additionally shared a hyperlink to a video exhibiting off the characteristic on Reddit.

Based mostly on the video, Google nonetheless has some work to do right here, because the voice is robotic and it spells out a header that reads “abstract” as a substitute of simply studying the phrase. I can’t inform you additional impressions as a result of I don’t appear to have the characteristic within the model of Canary I downloaded from Google’s web site whereas writing this text. (I additionally discovered that Chrome’s studying mode is a hidden characteristic that you have to enable.) And Google is late to the sport on one thing like this; Microsoft’s Edge already gives a strong text-to-speech characteristic in its Immersive View for websites.

Nonetheless, if Google does find yourself rolling out this new text-to-speech characteristic broadly, it may very well be an awesome choice for Chrome customers preferring to soak up info by audio. Let’s simply hope the corporate makes issues sound rather less robotic.