Recently, instead of using classic Chrome Custom Tabs, the Google app for Android started using a custom browser in the app for search results and more. Now the in-app browser for Google Search on Android is testing handy shortcuts to ‘Read Aloud’ and ‘Translate’.
Last month, the browser of the Google app got a pretty significant redesign and moved the control panel from top to bottom. Recently, the bottom controls got a cover and revealed suggestions from other pages that you might be interested in.
Tonight, Google has started rolling out a new pair of options in the browser’s three-point menu. The first, “Read Aloud,” is just one more way to access the Google Assistant reading an article on Android. It opens for the same activity you would get if you ask the Assistant to ‘read it for me’ when you browse a page in Chrome.
As the page is read, the words are highlighted on the screen and you are also presented with the game controls, including speed settings. It is tragic that this feature does not offer a dark mode.
Interestingly, reading aloud is the only colorful option in the Google Search for Android app browser. Where ‘read’ uses Google’s four color signature, all other options are monochrome. While this makes the option more noticeable, it is still not as prominent as the Google Play’s always-play button, which results in a similar “Read Before” experience.
Meanwhile, the Google browser on Android also gets an “Translate” option. If you’ve ever used Chrome’s built-in Google Translate feature for Android, you’ll find a similar experience in this browser in the app. At the bottom of the screen is a bar that allows you to quickly translate the current page into any language of your choice.
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Chrome for Android
Either way, whether Google wants to opt out of using Chrome tabs anymore, it looks like this browser in the app is here to stay, as Google still offers the full range of Chrome features. So far, we’ve only spotted these new “Read” and “Translate” pages in the beta version of the Google app, currently version 12.4.
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