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In earlier versions of Android, I could open a web page in Chrome and ask, "Hey Google, read this aloud" and it would read the web page aloud. It would read the entire web page (doing a reasonably good job of filtering out navigation) but not the user interface for Chrome or Android (stuff like the status bar and the URL0. I found this very useful and used it regularly. My Pixel 4a recently updated from Android 12 to Android 13 and it works in a different, less useful way. Now it reads everything on the screen and only what's on the screen. It reads user interface elements, starting with the status bar, then the Chrome URL. Then it reads the web page text, including navigation, and stops at the end of the screen, no matter how much more text the page has.

How can I have the web page read aloud, similar to how it worked for me in the past? Can Google Assistant still do the job, but I need to coax it differently?

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  • I think there's something peculiar with how Google Assistant's "Read aloud" work, but I still can't reproduce this on Chrome. On Pixel 3a, Android 12: 1) Chrome: Google Assistant only read the content as expected on some websites, including scrolling the page (e.g. this SE page) 2) Chrome: Google Assistant refused to read anything on some non-textual websites (e.g. DeviantArt), 3) Other non-textual apps: Google Assistant read the status bar and any text that can be parsed on the screen only (e.g. a multi-payment app).
    – Andrew T. ♦
    Oct 19, 2022 at 8:07

1 Answer 1

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I don't use Google assistant, but out of curiosity, long-pressed the home button to invoke Google assistant on Pixel 4a, Android 13. On the pop-up dialog, tap “read" or say "read" and it does read out as you'd expect it to (only the page contents minus other elements).

It works fine as tested on this web page.

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    I tried this on Pixel 3a Android 12 by voice command, and it also behaved the same as this answer.
    – Andrew T. ♦
    Oct 19, 2022 at 5:39
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    That is so weird. It's now working as expected and desired. I did reboot in the meanwhile; perhaps it got in a weird state. A good reminder that when in doubt, try rebooting.
    – Alan De Smet
    Oct 19, 2022 at 23:55

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