Who else remembers back in the day when the majority of websites weren’t optimized for mobile devices? Those were dark days indeed. These days, many websites have been optimized for our smaller and narrower screens, but is it perfect? Not really. Pages that contain a lot of text can sometimes still be a bit hard to read. The good news is that Google is fixing that with a new Reading Mode redesign for Chrome on Android.
Chrome on Android gets a Reading Mode redesign
First of all, for those unfamiliar, Reading Mode isn’t exactly a new feature. What it does is that it basically steps away from all distractions from a page, like ads, images, and videos. It preserves the text in a cleaner format, making it easier for users to read news articles or other long-form articles without all the clutter.
Now, Chrome on Android has a Reading Mode, which works well, but Google has decided to give it a redesign. With the older Reading Mode, it did not consistently appear on every article you think could benefit from the feature. This can be annoying, but this update should fix that.
According to 9to5Google , the change will allow users to “force” Reading Mode on any page. Users will find the feature in the three-dot menu underneath “Listen to this page.” Prior to this, only pages that support Reading Mode would show up with a big button, but like we said, the problem is that this wasn’t consistent. At least with this change, users can force pages into Reading Mode if they want.
Customization options
We all have different comfort preferences when it comes to reading. Some prefer dark backgrounds, some prefer light. This update preserves those customization options from the older design. Users get to choose between Light, Dark, or Sepia color tones. They also have the option of increasing text size up to 250%, perfect for those who might have some kind of visual impairment. Then, users get to choose between different font styles, like Sans Serif, Serif, or Mono.
Take note that your preferences are saved through different pages. So, if you’re worried that you’d have to keep redoing your settings whenever you load a new page, don’t be.
According to the report, this feature should be available for those running Chrome 143 in the stable channel. However, it does not appear to be widely rolled out yet. But if you think that this redesign could be of use to you, then you’ll want to keep an eye out for it.
