‘Listen to this page’ in Chrome for Android gets background playback
Google is adding background playback to its ‘Listen to this page’ feature in Chrome for Android. This means you can now listen to articles, web pages, and even documents while doing other things on your phone. The new functionality, first reported by Android Police, appears to have quietly launched recently. It was spotted on an update to Google Chrome, but there’s no word from the company about a public launch or specific roll-out plans. So, chances are that the feature is being rolled out gradually, and users will need to keep an eye out for it in their app’s settings. It’s currently only available on Android.
To access the new feature, users can head to the Chrome settings menu. Navigate to the ‘Accessibility’ section and toggle on the ‘Listen to this page’ feature. Once you’ve done this, the feature should become available when you are browsing web pages, where you’ll find a new ‘Listen to this page’ option in the share menu, typically accessed by pressing the three dots at the top right corner of the page.
It’s not clear why Google decided to roll out this feature on a silent basis, as the ability to listen to webpages while engaging in other tasks has always been a user demand, and the implementation, although a nice feature, doesn’t really introduce any novel technological concepts.
In addition to background playback, Google’s feature offers several customization options such as selecting voice languages, different reading speeds, and various levels of tone, providing more flexibility in reading styles and personal preferences.
This update is likely to be welcomed by many Chrome users, especially those who find it difficult or time-consuming to read lengthy webpages. Background playback enables users to be more efficient with their time by allowing them to listen to content while doing other activities.
One caveat is that, like the original functionality, the ‘Listen to this page’ feature will likely struggle to work seamlessly with websites with large amounts of text. The software uses Google’s Text-to-Speech engine to synthesize and convert written content into audio, and thus the quality of playback is dependent on the website’s formatting. For pages with non-textual elements or unusual structures, the experience might feel somewhat janky, as the voice engine struggles to make sense of complex, dynamically changing websites or layouts with mixed multimedia formats.
Still, ‘Listen to this page’ is an intuitive and powerful feature that offers several advantages to users, such as a convenient way to learn new topics, digest news, or engage with content while doing other tasks. This new background playback functionality significantly expands the utility and convenience of this feature and can likely contribute to Chrome’s appeal for many users.
