Google has made a major upgrade to the Read Aloud feature of Chrome for Android

Just because Chrome for Android already offers a pretty solid experience doesn’t mean the company isn’t actively working on new things to make it even better. Recently, Google has introduced several new features to Chrome for Android, bringing a variety of useful upgrades to users, including Chrome Actions, personalized search suggestions, and an improved address bar for tablets.

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That being said, it looks like mobile Chrome will be getting a welcome update in the near future that will bring Read Aloud to inactive tabs. The feature was spotted by the folks at MSPoweruser, and while it doesn’t seem like a huge update, it could be a game changer for many users’ mobile experience (via Android Authority ).

Small changes make a big difference

It’s important to note that the feature isn’t currently available to the public. The news outlet discovered the feature through a flag that provided details on how to use the feature. The current flag, “#read-aloud-background-playback flag,” has the description “Controls background playback for the Read Aloud feature.”

From the description, it’s pretty simple how this new change works. Currently, users can access Read Aloud on the mobile version of Chrome, but it only continues to work if the user remains in the tab. If the user tries to navigate away from the tab, Read Aloud will stop working. As you can imagine, this might be a bit frustrating if you’re trying to multitask.

This change fixes this behavior, making Read Aloud even more powerful and easier to use. At this time, we don’t know when this new feature will come to mobile Chrome, but let’s hope it’s soon, as it could be a game-changer for some of you. If you’re not currently using mobile Chrome, it’s definitely worth giving it a try.