If you have one of the best Android phones, then your web browsing could soon become much more streamlined, as Google appears to be working on an updated Reading Mode for Chrome.
If you’ve never used a Reading mode-type feature before, it essentially removes much of the visual noise that appears on a page, be it ads or videos, and presents the text in a much cleaner format.
The changes were spotted by 9to5Google, which reported that the new addition appeared on two of its devices that are running Chrome 145, with new "reader-mode-improvements" flags enabled in Chrome's Flags settings. While the current version of Google Chrome does offer a Reading mode, it’s limited to text-heavy pages, and won’t work on things like search results or complex interactive pages.
This alone wouldn’t be a problem, but the issue is that it isn’t consistent on even the supported pages, with the icon sometimes not appearing at all, which isn’t ideal for an accessibility feature. Plus, even when the icon to activate the feature does appear, it can be hard to spot, which can be a real challenge for some.
The new Reading mode appears to solve both of these problems. According to the report, if you press the three dots that sit at the top-right of the screen, you’ll now see a new “Show Reading mode” button that sits underneath the “listen to this page” option. Even better, the button reportedly appears on every page you visit, rather than just supported ones.
What does the new Reading Mode offer?
When you press the new button, a new omnibox pop-up will appear that offers you several different options. This new box only takes up a portion of the screen, rather than the entire display, which makes it much simpler to tailor to your liking without having to go back and forth.
You can choose from three different fonts for the page to appear in: Sans Serif, Serif or Mono, depending on what is easier for you to read. For those with difficulty reading smaller text, the Reading mode allows you to increase the text size up to 250%. Finally, you can adapt the lighting of the page, with a choice of either a light, dark or sepia tone.
What’s even better about this new version is that it appears that the app will save your reading mode preferences, preserving them between different pages. However, while this new addition is certainly a needed one, it might take a while before you see it on your device. I checked my Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the option wasn’t there yet, so it appears that the addition has not fully rolled out just yet.
We keep you updated when we start to see the addition on more devices, but until then, let us know what your preferred browser is on your Android phone, and if this addition would be enough to have you move to Chrome?
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.
More from Tom's Guide
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
