If you read a lot on your mobile, you have a little -or a lot- affected vision and you use Android, you are interested in knowing the Android’s new “reading mode”a feature that is being released in the Google operating system as an application and that you can install regardless of the phone model you have.
As you can imagine, this Reading Mode is similar to the popular reading view offered by most web browsers on PC, a function that displays the text of the articles, eliminating all distractions and, worth the redundancy, making them easier to read. However, this new Reading Mode is an accessibility feature. Keep that in mind, because it’s not a replacement for reading view.
Speaking of reading view, Chrome is the only one of the big browsers that doesn’t include reading view, although installing an extension is enough to fix it. In its version for PC. On mobile it does offer reading view (“simplified view”) but, unlike the rest of the Chromium derivatives, not by default.
In short, use an alternative (Brave, Edge, Vivaldi) if you’re looking for a better web browser for Android, one that gives you more than the basic Chrome features, including reading view. In fact, Reading Mode works with everyone because as you have read, it is an accessibility feature that will be annoying for those who do not have vision problems.
You will find Reading Mode on Google Play. Once installed, simply follow the wizard’s instructions and give it permission to run in Android’s accessibility settings, a process that varies slightly depending on the version of your phone’s system and the layer of customization it includes. More or less:
- Make sure you have the “Accessibility button” turned on.
- Turn on Reading Mode in Accessibility apps.
You already have it. However, it will also depend on the Android you use. basic characteristics of access to Reading Mode: On most Android models, you’ll have to “hold” a floating button (you can set it to not be so intrusive) that barely dims when you’re not using it, while on Samsung Galaxy ones you can assign a shortcut to activate it, in The Xiaomi you can pin it in the sidebar.
For the rest, its operation is simple: the button in question will appear with almost any text source that is displayed on the screen, be it a web page or an application, and when pressed it will superimpose a layer -which takes a while to load- only with the text and a very large font with good contrast, as well as three buttons at the bottom to increase or decrease the size, to read it aloud or to tweak the representation options (width, colors, etc).
The truth is that Android’s Reading Mode doesn’t have a very good score on Google Play, but it’s its first version and it can only improve, so we’ll have to give it the opportunity to do so. The good thing is that it is a standalone application that anyone can install, so it is available to everyone who needs it.
