Can Google Chrome Read To You? How To Use Text-To-Speech In The Browser

Using onlineapps that offer text-to-speech featurescomes with significant upside — when used in travel, they may be able to facilitate better understanding between two people who speak different languages, and when used for work, they can improve your ability to focus and even make multitasking a more achievable feat.

Those who primarily work online are likely to have a web browser like Google Chrome perennially open for quick access to web pages. If that sounds like you, then you may also be wondering if Chrome is text-to-speech-compatible and how the feature can optimize your experience using the browser.

The quick answer is yes, Google Chrome can certainly read the text from websites to you so you don’t have to do it manually, however, the process of setting everything up will depend on which device you use. You can utilize screen-reading features baked into your computer’s operating system or mobile device, or use athird-party Chrome extensionon a computer.

How to enable text-to-speech in Chrome using browser extensions

For those who primarily use Google Chrome on a computer, the easiest way to get the browser to read content is by using extensions. One of the more popular ones that convert text to speech is Speechify. Here’s how you can set it up:

After creating an account, you’ll be led to Speechify’s dashboard, where you’re able to upload documents you want the browser to read aloud. However, there won’t be a need to do that. While the Speechify Chrome extension is enabled, when you visit a website that has readable content, playback controls should appear on the side of the page. To start the playback, just hit the play button. You can customize certain playback controls, such as speed or voice style. Alternatively, if you want to play a certain portion of the text, just hover over the area and hit the play button that should appear next to the selected paragraph.

How to enable Windows 11’s built-in text-to-speech tool on a computer

On a Windows computer running at least Windows 10, you may have access to Narrator, a built-in feature that can read aloud things that you have open on a web browser. Here’s how you can launch Narrator and use it on Google Chrome:

Microsoft Narrator may work differently on a variety of websites, but in general, it should read text on any page out loud and prioritize any portions that you highlight. For additional assistance on how to maximize Narrator for reading Google Chrome content, visit Microsoft’ssupport page.

Apple computers have a built-in accessibility tool called VoiceOver that can verbally read onscreen text. Here’s how to turn on the screen reader on a Mac:

At this point, you’re able to run through the VoiceOver tutorial by following onscreen prompts to learn keyboard controls. To use the feature to read a page on Google Chrome, open a new tab, visit the website link you want, and highlight the text you want read aloud. To adjust the speed of the voice-over, navigate to the Accessibility settings again, go to Spoken Content, and adjust the Speaking Rate slider. If you need more help with VoiceOver, just click the Open VoiceOver Training button in the VoiceOver settings page or visit theVoiceOveruser guide.

How to use text-to-speech on iOS or Android with Chrome

The VoiceOver text-to-speech feature found on Mac is available on an iPhone or an iPad, too. The easiest way to enable it is by using Siri. Launch the Google Chrome app and open the website you want read to you. Once the page is onscreen, ask Siri to “Turn on VoiceOver.” The VoiceOver toggle should show up onscreen as enabled. Hit the side button once to minimize it and tap on the text on the screen you want to read. To scroll up or down, use three fingers.

You can just as easily enable text-to-speech on anAndroidphone or tablet. First, launch the Settings app and go to Accessibility. Scroll down and select “Text-to-speech output.” Ensure that Speech Recognition and Synthesis from Google is selected as the “Preferred engine.”

Once those preferences are set up, launch the Google Chrome app and open a website you’d like to hear read to you. Long-press on any text to pull up the selector slider and highlight the portion you want read to you. On the menu that appears on top of the selection, hit the three-dot icon and select “Read aloud.” You should begin hearing the text and see playback controls at the bottom of the page. You can pause, resume playback, or hit the gear icon to change the speech speed and playback text size.

How to use a Chromebook’s text-to-speech tool with Chrome

Chomebooks have their own screen reader calledChromeVox. you may rig it to read web pages of text in its entirety or specify which part of the page you want read aloud. To do the former, you need to:

If you want only certain portions of the page read aloud, here’s what you do:

Alternatively, you can hold down the Search key first and drag your mouse over the text you want read aloud until it’s within a box selector. When you let go, Select-to-Speak should begin reading your selection. To stop the read-aloud, hit the Ctrl key on your keyboard.