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Chrome’s “Listen to this page” feature on Android has always been a handy tool for catching up on articles while you’re driving, doing chores, or just want to give your eyes a rest. But let’s be honest, listening to a single, somewhat-robotic voice read a long article verbatim isn’t always the most engaging experience.
Well, that’s all about to change. A massive, AI-powered upgrade is now rolling out to the stable version of Chrome for Android that transforms this simple text-to-speech reader into a full-blown, podcast-style Audio Overview like we’ve all grown to love from NotebookLM.
From a simple reader to a full-on podcast
This new feature, first introduced in Google’s NotebookLM and Gemini, is a huge leap forward. Instead of just reading the full text of a webpage, the browser now uses AI to generate a summary of the content and plays it back as a conversation between two different AI hosts.
The goal is to turn any article or long block of text into a quick, interactive, and far more engaging listening experience. It’s like having a mini-podcast created for you on the fly for any webpage you visit, making it easier than ever to digest information on the go.
How to find and use the new feature
This powerful new tool is now beginning to roll out more widely to the stable version of Chrome for Android (version 140 and newer). Here’s how to access it:
- On any webpage in the Chrome app, tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner.
- Select “Listen to this page.”
- In the playback overlay that appears at the bottom of the screen, you’ll see a new button that lets you toggle the AI-powered playback on or off, so you can still choose the old-school, full-text reading if you prefer.
This is a fantastic and smart evolution of an already-useful feature. It’s great to see Google taking some of the best AI tools from its other services and bringing them to a wider audience within core products like Chrome. If you’re a Chrome user on Android, keep an eye out for this new feature—it might just change the way you consume content.
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