Read websites aloud with Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge

You can read websites aloud via an extension with the Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browser. The so-called “text-to-speech” technology makes it possible to read out the content of a website.

Text-to-speech (TTS) is a technology that converts written text into spoken audio. It is also known as speech synthesis. The process involves analyzing the input text and generating the corresponding speech output, allowing computers and other devices to “speak” the text out loud.

TTS technology was developed to assist people with visual impairments, to provide audio feedback in various applications and to make interactions with devices more natural and accessible.

To use text-to-speech in the browser you need a browser extension. A browser extension is a piece of software that adds new functionality to the browser.

Read websites aloud with Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge

As indicated in the accompanying text, you will need a browser extension. This is the text reader extension.

• Text reader for the Google Chrome browser.
• Text reader for the Microsoft Edge browser.

Install the extension in the appropriate browser.

If you have the extension installed, I recommend pinning the extension. By pinning the extension, the extension is always visible in the menu bar and immediately accessible to use it.

To then read out a website, click on the “Text Reader” icon in the menu to open the text reader settings.

Change the language to “Google Dutch”. To read a website aloud, click on the “Play” icon at the bottom.

To change multiple settings, click the gear icon to set the text reader preferences.

You can now read the entire page. However, a disadvantage of reading the entire page is that all hyperlinked parts are also read out. This means that all individual parts on the sites are read out separately before the final text that you want to be read is actually read out.

To prevent this, you can select text on the website and have it read aloud. You do this by selecting the text with the mouse, then right-clicking on the text and clicking on “Read text”. The selected text is now read out in the language you set.

I hope to have informed you with this. Thank you for reading!