A good portion of the time we spend on our phones is reserved for reading content outside of web pages. Google Assistant can now transcribe the content of a web page and read it. It will be available for all Android later this year. We tell you how it works below.
Think of it as 'listening' to your news in a podcast format rather than reading it. The feature was demoed at Google I/O last year and is now coming to more devices.
This method is less than ideal, as critical information contained in page elements such as images and videos is lost.
Google assistant, read web pages
To get started, all you need to do is say, “Hey Google, read this” or “Hey Google, read this page” to your Google Assistant, and it will immediately read the content of the web page aloud.
Your browser will automatically scroll the page and highlight words as they are read aloud. You can also alter the reading speed and choose from multiple voices (Lime, Jungle, Royal and Sapphire). The voice in the demo sounds a bit monotonous and robotic, but that's the case with most text-to-speech services.
The controls are very podcast-like and include a button to play/pause, go back 10 seconds, and skip 30 seconds. There's even an estimated timeline bar, showing you how much of the item is left.
Lastly, you can also slow down or speed up from .5x to 3x.
Here's a short video of the feature in action:
Read web pages in 42 languages (more soon)
In addition, Google Assistant can also translate the content of said article in real time. A total of 42 languages are supported right now, and Google promises to add support for more in the coming months.
Website owners do not have to make any changes to their website structure. Those who don't want their web pages to be read aloud in this way can use the Nopagereadaloud tag. The feature is rolling out now and will be available for all Android devices running Android 5.0 or higher by the end of the year.
If you don't have the Google Assistant, here it is from Google Play:
What do you think of this new option for Google Assistant? Futuristic bumper right? Leave a comment below.
Android has been reading the text to me for a long time, and I have to say that it is very comfortable and practical.