Google Assistant adds text reading functionality on websites

On the CES 2020 stage, Google has been teasing about an extremely useful new feature that is about to appear in Google Assistant called "Read It," which can read aloud any text that appears on pages. The web has been officially launched and implemented for all Android smartphone users from Lollipop (5.0) and above.

In a blog announcement, Yossi Matias, Google Assistant Vice President of Engineering, confidently announced Read It will become one of the most commonly used features when users interact with smart assistants. by Google. The reason given is due to the fact that people increasingly use smartphones more, including daily tasks such as reading newspapers, studying documents, reading blogs, learning knowledge . This increases the amount of time it takes to interact with the screen, at that time, but people who have vision problems or simply don't want to look at the screen too much will need help from Read It.

To use this feature, first open your web browser and navigate to a certain website (such as a website that reads online newspapers). Next, you wake up Google Assistant and enter the command: "Hey Google, read this page", then all the text on the page (or the text you have selected) will be read aloud through the external speaker on the device or headphones.

There will be settings to allow users to change the reading speed and select a variety of languages, and the intonation of the voice has also been modified, giving a more 'real' feel. In case the user wants to select languages ​​not yet supported. Google will also support translating content into different languages. Currently, the translation feature supports 42 language options.

In particular, site owners will not have to make any tweaks so that Google Assistant can read the text on their website. This new feature will be rolled out to Android users starting today. However, it may take several days to be updated on all compatible devices.