With the command “Hey Google, read this page,” Google Assistant can now read entire web pages to users on Android.
This feature launched earlier in the month, though some may have missed it. You might also remember it being previewed weeks ago at CES.
People may find this useful in situations where they’re reading a long article, or catching up on news, and don’t have time to sit down with their phone and read a bunch of text.
Now, Android users can consume web page content in a format similar to a podcast or an ebook. The feature is available on nearly every modern Android phone running Lollipop and above.
“With Google Assistant, your browser can now read web articles out loud. Whenever a web article is displayed on your browser in your Android phone, you can say, “Hey Google, read it” or “Hey Google, read this page” it will immediately read aloud the content of the web page.”
As Google Assistant reads a web page out loud, the browser will automatically scroll down the page and highlight words as they’re being read. So you can easily follow along, if you wish to.
Users can also adjust the reading speed, making it even faster and more convenient to consume content. Web pages are read in expressive, natural voices so it won’t sound like a machine is reading to you.
Google Assistant offers several different voices for users to choose from, and the feature is compatible with 42 languages. Simply use the translation menu to select the language of your choice, and all pages will be automatically translated and read in that language.
Websites do not need to do anything special to enable this function. If, for whatever reason, you’d rather not have Google Assistant read your web pages you can utilize the nopagereadaloud tag.
Source: Google
