Google‘s Reading Mode app is quite possibly one of the best reading experiences one can have when reading on mobile. And because it was released towards the end of 2022, anyone can install it on their own device.
Reading Mode is an app that was developed with being an accessibility feature in mind. But that doesn’t mean it’s only useful for users who would need and benefit from accessibility features. And there’s a lot of different ways to augment the app’s experience. Including changing the font sizes of content, the spacing, the color of text, and even the font itself.
Additionally, the app lets you press a “play” button to have content read aloud if you need or would prefer to have audio as opposed to reading content yourself. Another useful feature, although admittedly minor, is that when you engage reading mode it will tell you how long of a read certain content is. Whether that be 3 minutes or 5 minutes.
The Reading Mode app works on most content
Reading Mode makes for a great way to make it easier to read stuff on websites. Especially if they use small text or if pages are laden with ads that cover literally everything. But Reading Mode doesn’t just work on websites. It’ll work on just about everything on the phone. Including apps and in-app browsers.
For users that are going to give this a try, enabling it is quite easy. You’ll initially enable a toggle that allows it to draw over other apps from your settings. From there, Reading Mode appears on your screen as a small button that sits on the edge of the display. And you just need to tap on it to enable Reading Mode for any content you want to read within it.
Since this is system-wide, you can toggle it on and off at your convenience. And the app is free so anyone can actually use it no matter the device, or Android version. If you want to check it out for yourself, you can grab it from the Google Play Store.