Tag: google chrome features

Google Chrome for Android Gets a ‘Listen to This Page’ Text-to-Speech Feature: How to Use

Google Chrome for Android is getting a new feature dubbed Listen to this Page, which will let the browser read any text-heavy webpage aloud. The text-to-speech (TTS) feature is being integrated into the Android app, and users will be able to access it from the three-dotted menu icon. The feature opens a miniplayer that comes with play/pause, a progress bar, playback speed options, and more. Users can also listen to a webpage in multiple voices and different languages as well.

Google Chrome’s Listen to This Page feature

According to a dedicated support page for the feature, it can be used to read the text on a website while using an Android device. The feature can play the audio while the user switches to a different tab. The audio can also play while the screen is locked. While the feature has begun rolling out to users, a wider release may take a few weeks. The feature is being rolled out with the Google Chrome version 125. Gadgets 360 staff were able to find this new feature on the latest version of Chrome for Android.

Google Chrome’s Listen to this page feature supports several languages including Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Further, several voice types are also available for users to choose from. The TTS feature has Ruby (mid-pitch, warm), River (mid-pitch, calm), Field (low-pitch, bright), and Moss (low-pitch, peaceful) voice options in English (US). It offers Cloud (mid-pitch, soothing) and Dale (low-pitch, calm) in English (UK), and Lake (mid-pitch, calm) in English (India) languages.

Once the feature is turned on, users will find a miniplayer at the bottom of the screen which comes with play/pause, a progress bar, a 10-second fast forward/rewind, and playback speed options. The overflow menu also auto-scrolls as the voice reads the text. Once the app is closed, the voice is paused. Google Chrome remembers where it was paused and upon reopening the app, it can start playing from where it left off.

How to Use Google Chrome’s Listen to This Page Feature

  1. Open the Google Chrome app on your Android device.
  2. Open a webpage with text. The page should be text-heavy.
  3. Once the page fully loads, tap the icon on the top right with three vertical dots.
  4. Look for Listen to this page. Tap on it.
  5. To change the playback speed: Tap on the miniplayer.
  6. In the player window, tab the three horizontal dots on the bottom right.
  7. Tap on Playback Speed.
  8. To change the voice, tap on Voice. Tap Preview to try out the voice.
  9. Tap Highlight text and auto-scroll to enable the feature.

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Google Chrome for Android Reportedly Adds Support for Third-Party Password Managers

Google Chrome for Android is reportedly adding support for third-party password managers. The browser currently only supports password autofill from Google Password Manager, its native service. As a result, Android users who prefer and use other password managers cannot use the app’s saved data to log into their accounts on the browser. It appears that the tech giant is now addressing this pain point by allowing users to choose whichever third-party service they want. Notably, the desktop app of Google Chrome recently upgraded the standard version of the Safe Browsing feature with a real-time protection protocol.

Spotted by tipster @Leopeva64 on X (formerly known as Twitter) in the Stable version of Chrome for Android, the feature lets users autofill passwords from their preferred password manager. He said, “This feature now works and if you choose the “Use other providers” option, Chrome no longer shows you suggestions from its password manager.” The tipster first highlighted this feature in November 2023 when it was still under development.

The feature is already available on Chrome Stable, Beta, and Canary builds, and users with these builds can access them immediately. However, they will first have to activate an experimental flag. As per a report by Android Authority, it can be enabled at chrome://flags/#enable-autofill-virtual-view-structure. Once activated, the setting will appear. After that, users can go to Chrome Settings > Autofill options and select Use other providers. Once the setting is changed, Google will no longer show its password suggestions in login text fields.

This setting should automatically prompt Chrome to trigger the default password manager the user has set for their Android smartphone. To change the default password manager, users can head to Android settings and click on Passwords & accounts > Passwords, passkeys, and data services and select the password manager of their choice.

A thing to note here is while the feature is working, the report found a bug where entering a new password did not prompt an option to save it, despite the flag being activated. This can be a concern for users wanting to switch their password manager immediately. It appears Google is still fine-tuning the feature before its public release.

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Google Chrome for Android is Reportedly Testing Picture-in-Picture Mode for Custom Tabs

Google Chrome for Android is reportedly working on an interesting feature that allows users to minimise a custom tab in picture-in-picture (PiP) mode. Chrome Custom Tab is a feature extended by the browser for third-party app developers who want to build an in-app web browser experience via Chrome browser. This new update will allow users to browse through pages without worrying about losing the desired webpage. Recently, Google also announced new generative artificial intelligence (AI) features for the Chrome browser for Windows and Mac PCs.

Spotted by 9to5Google, the under-testing feature is only available for Chrome Custom Tabs. For the unversed, these are the web pages that open when one clicks a link in apps such as Gmail. Opening such a URL reportedly shows a downward arrow next to the back icon. Tapping on the arrow minimises the window into a PiP interface. The PiP window shows information such as website icons, the name of the site or page, and the domain. The feature was seen in Chrome 122, which is a stable version, but as per the report it has only been rolled out to a small batch of users.

As per the screenshots shared, the content on the page cannot be seen while the tab is minimised. It is not known whether opening a video streaming site such as YouTube and playing a video will show the video in PiP mode or not.

The report also highlights that the PiP window can be resized to make it larger and be moved around the screen, although it can only be docked on the left or the right edge. To go back to the page, users can tap on the window and click the fullscreen icon placed in the middle, and to close it, either swiping it to the bottom or tapping the ‘x’ icon will do the trick. Only one tab can be kept in PiP mode at a time, as per the report.

This can be a useful feature for Chrome Custom Tabs as currently, they lack the option to open multiple tabs. Users can navigate to other pages through in-site links but to return to the original page, they will have to move backwards through all the web pages. The process can be tedious and act as a deterrent for users to explore other pages, even if they want to.

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