Google Docs Gets New Text-to-Speech Feature
Earlier this month, Abner Li reported for 9to5 Google Gemini has gained the ability to read the contents of Google Docs with a new AI-based text-to-speech feature. The functionality arrives a few months after it was announced by Google back in early April.
“On the web, go to the Tools menu [in Google Docs] for a new ‘Audio’ option in-between Voice typing and Gemini. Tapping ‘Listen to this tab’ will open a pill-shaped player, with the duration noted. You can move this floating window anywhere on the screen,” Li wrote of how the audio feature works. “Besides play/pause and a scrubber, available controls include playback speed and changing the ‘clear, natural-sounding voices.’”
Li adds editors are able to “add an audio button anywhere in the document.”
Li hits on the accessibility angle to this recent news, quoting Google’s rationale that using the audio feature can be beneficial for “[wanting] to hear your content out loud, absorb information better while reading, or help catch errors in your writing.” Indeed, that Google Docs—which I hate but know is immensely popular—can be read aloud should be a real boon for people who may retain information better as aural learners. Likewise, it’s also true many neurodivergent people find spoken material more accessible to grasp than merely reading the textual version. Relatedly, I’ve noticed an increasing number of news outlets, namely Forbes and The Verge, including a button on a story’s page to turn it into an audio version. It effectively turns the article in an audiobook or podcast, the former of which having roots in the disability community. Still, given the mainstream popularity of both mediums, audio-based versions of Google Docs—even if it’s limited to a particular section of the overall document—it makes perfect sense to want to lean in strongly with audio production vis-a-vis AI.
The Google Docs audio feature is available only in English and on the web for now.
News of the Google Docs enhancement is complemented by news Microsoft Excel has gained support for Copilot AI to assist in filling out information for users’ spreadsheets.
