Friday, December 02, 2022

Google Reading Mode Is a Wonderful New Feature for Android

Google just made my day yesterday. They have added a dedicated Reading mode to Android. It installs through the Play store (look for Google Reading mode) and hooks into your phone's accessibility features, displaying a small widget to open the mode. When you trigger it, it overlays your screen with a new window that displays just the text of what you are reading and lets you control the text's typeface and size, line spacing, colour, and background. It can also read the text back to you. 

It's not a Pixel-only feature. I was able to install it on my wife's Samsung phone. For Samsung, once it is installed, go to Accessibility > Installed Apps > Reading mode and turn on the app. It will add a star to the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen. 

I haven't been able to figure out how to take a screenshot while it's working, but this article will show you what it looks like.

It's not perfect: It sometimes refuses to work for an article (usually scrolling down a bit will fix that problem) and the widget can get in the way of a button onscreen (you can move it around). Font choices are somewhat limited. 

Minor issues aside, for someone like me, who has trouble reading dark text on a white screen or text that's too small or lacks contrast, this is a wonderful feature. 

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