The best Chromebooks and ChromeOS tablets recently got a new accessibility feature. Freshly announced at the end of March 2023 is reading mode. Just as the name suggests, this feature helps make webpages easier to read for those who might have reading difficulties. Unlike reading mode on the best Windows laptops and Microsoft Edge, though, the feature lives in the side panel of Google Chrome and isn't quite easy to find. Here's where you can find it.

Reading mode on ChromeOS and Google Chrome is set to become available in ChromeOS 114 and Chrome version 114. It's not currently available in the stable version of the browser or operating system. We're testing it in the Canary channel of ChromeOS which is unstable and has a lot of bugs. You can enroll your device in Canary from Settings > About ChromeOS > Additional Details > Channel if you please.

How to use reading mode on a Chromebook

Using reading mode on a Chromebook requires going into the side panel in Google Chrome. From there, you can get to it with a submenu.

  1. Open Google Chrome.
  2. Navigate to any webpage.
  3. Click the side panel icon. It's the icon that's to the left of your profile picture.
  4. Your reading list will open by default. You might also see Bookmarks or Journeys.
  5. Click the down arrow next to the reading list and choose Reading mode.
  6. Now that you've chosen the Reading mode option, you should see content from the webpage populate in the sidebar.

What makes the reading mode different is that it shows just the text, removing videos and photos, along with excess information. If you'd like, click where it says Standard font to change the fonts for better legibility. Clicking the A icon next to that will also change the text size. Clicking the paint canvas icon will change the color of the sidebar, so you can see the text better against custom colors. You even can change the spacing between lines, and how wide the margins are with the next two icons.

Reading mode is a simple feature, even if it's not upfront. If you find that the native reading mode in Chrome isn't to your liking, since it pushes content to a side panel, there are plenty of extensions you can try out. Our favorite reading mode extension comes from readermode.io, and is free to use. It is ad-free, supports custom themes, a full-screen mode, and so much more. You can check it out on the Chrome Web Store.