Hear text read aloud on your Pixelbook

You can hear full pages read aloud to you with Pixelbook's built-in screen reader. Or hear parts of a page, including specific words, read aloud with Select-to-speak.

Note: Currently, braille devices don't work with Android apps on Pixelbooks.

Listen to all text

To have pages read aloud to you, turn on your device's built-in screen reader:

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings
3. At the bottom, select Advanced.
4. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.
5. Under "Text-to-Speech," turn on Enable ChromeVox.

Note: You can turn ChromeVox on or off from any page:

• On a keyboard: Press Ctrl + Alt + z.
• On a tablet: Press and hold the Volume down + Volume up buttons for 5 seconds. While holding the buttons, you’ll hear a sound to indicate it's working. Keep holding the buttons, then ChromeVox will start speaking.

For more information on the built-in screen reader, see Related articles.

Listen to part of a page

To have only some text on a page read to you, turn on Select-to-speak.

Step 1: Turn on Select-to-speak

1. Select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings .
3. At the bottom, select Advanced.
4. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.
5. Under "Text-to-Speech," turn on Enable select-to-speak.

Step 2: Select and hear text

1. To select what text you'd like to hear:
   • Press and hold the Search key  and select a line of text.
   • Press and hold the Search key  and drag the pointer over an area of the screen.
   • ​Highlight the text and press the Search key  + s
   • Select Select-to-speak . Then select a line of text or drag the pointer over an area of the screen.
   • On a touchscreen: Tap Select-to-speak . Then tap a line of text or drag your finger over an area of the screen.
2. Your device will read the section aloud and each word will be highlighted.
3. To stop Select-to-speak while it's reading, press Ctrl or the Search key , or select Stop .

Note: Select-to-speak won't work with a stylus or the on-screen keyboard.

Change the language or voice

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings .
3. At the bottom, select Advanced.
4. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.
5. Under "Text-to-Speech," select Text-to-Speech voice settings.
6. Customize your text-to-speech voice:
   • Change the volume: Under the "Speech Properties" section, set the loudness.
   • Change the language: In the "Preferred Voices" section, choose a language.
7. Choose the type of voice. By default, Chrome OS has 2 speech engines with voices available: Chrome OS TTS and eSpeak. In the "Speech Engines" section, select Settings, then choose a voice.
   • Note: Chrome OS TTS voices have a more human-sounding quality and are very responsive when navigating. eSpeak voices have a more computer-generated sound and are available in a wider variety of languages.

Change the color of highlighted text

If you are using Select-to-speak, each word will be highlighted as it's spoken. You can turn off highlighting or change the color of the highlighted words.

1. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
2. Select Settings .
3. At the bottom, select Advanced.
4. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.
5. Under "Text-to-Speech," select Open select-to-speak settings.
6. Choose a color for highlighted words.
   • Optional: To get the strongest contrast, we recommend using green or pink, especially if you're using high contrast mode.
7. Optional: To turn off highlighting, select Highlight each word as it is spoken.

Buy personalized voices

In addition to the voices available by default, you can buy voices through Acapela to personalize the voice that reads text aloud to you on your device. You can choose from 100+ voices and 30+ languages.

1. Go to the Chrome Web Store and search for Acapela TTS Engine.
2. Select Add to Chrome Add extension.
3. At the bottom right, select the time. Or press Alt + Shift + s.
4. Select Settings .
5. At the bottom, select Advanced.
6. In the "Accessibility" section, select Manage accessibility features.
7. Select Text-to-Speech voice settings.
8. Under "Speech Engines," next to "Acapela TTS Engine," select Settings.
9. Select the voice(s) you want to purchase.
10. Return to Text-to-Speech voice settings and under "Preferred Voices," choose the voice you want to use.

Related articles

• Use the built-in screen reader