SLIS 761 Post #5 - Microsoft Edges Out Google Chrome With Immersive Reader

I have been a long time user of Google Chrome and I still use it as my primary browser, mostly because of the tremendous number of bookmarks that I have accumulated over the years and the fact that it is synced to my phone’s browser. Even though I feel invested in the Google ecosystem, I will admit that there is one area where the Microsoft Edge browser excels beyond Chrome, and that is with the Edge’s built-in Immersive Reader tools. Immersive Reader is a mode that you can switch the Edge browser into when viewing articles, and what it does is simplify the text of the page by removing almost everything aside from the main body of the text. It also provides access to a suite of tools that includes read aloud, text preferences, grammar tools, and reading preferences. According to the Microsoft support page, Immersive Reader is designed, "to meet the needs of readers with dyslexia and dysgraphia or anyone who wants to make reading on their device easier" ("Use Immersive," n.d.). While Google Chrome is capable of running similar tools, those tools are not included in the standard installed version of Chrome. To have access to those features, you must install extensions for Chrome, many of which are created by third-party developers and not by Google themselves. Immersive Reader though, is built-in to the Microsoft Edge browser, which is included on every Windows PC.

How do you use Immersive Reader? Well, Immersive Reader becomes accessible once the user has navigated to a page with a large enough amount of text. Once there, an icon that looks like an open book with a small speaker in the lower right corner will appear in the address bar, to the right of the web address.

When you hover over it, the text box that appears reads, “Enter Immersive Reader (F9).” Clicking on that button switches the page over to Immersive Reader mode and causes the associated toolbar to drop down.

Normal Browser View

Immersive Reader View

Clicking on “Read aloud” activates text-to-speech mode. You can pause, play, and skip forward and backwards through the text. As the text is being read, the document is darkened while each word being read is highlighted. You can set the speed at which the words are read and also select what the voice sounds like. According to a study by Rodriguez-Goncalves et al. (2021), “Studies have shown that the functionality of Text to Speech, can improve the reading speed and comprehension of much of the population with dyslexia” (p. 3). Additionally though, I think that being able to hear how words are pronounced could be a helpful tool for new readers as well. 

The “Text preferences” button opens a menu box that allows users to change the text size, spacing, font, column width, and the lightness and darkness of the page theme. In addition to making the text easier to read, these options could also help to reduce eyestrain.

The “Grammar tools” let you split the words up by syllables, as well as highlight and label the different parts of speech in the text.

When you click on “Reading preferences,” you can select to highlight between one and five lines of text at a time, turn on picture dictionary, or translate the page into another language. Picture dictionary is pretty interesting, in that it turns the cursor into a wand when hovering over certain words that you can click on, which will then pull up a picture meant to exemplify the meaning of the selected word. Although I do not know how well the translator works, I think that being able to easily switch between different languages could be helpful for anyone trying to learn another language.

Immersive Reader is not compatible with every webpage though. Pages like search engine results and Amazon sales pages do not seem to activate it. You can however, go into Immersive Reader mode if you highlight a paragraph of text, like for instance, a customer review, then right-click the highlighted text and select "Open selection in Immersive Reader."

The main reason that I chose to talk about Immersive Reader is because I personally use it for a lot of my course reading. Any time I have an article to read on a website, I use Immersive Reader because I like getting rid of the clutter on the page and being able to change the font size and width of the text. Additionally, I enjoy using Read Aloud because it allows me to take notes while I listen to articles. The best website for learning more about how to use Immersive Reader is the Microsoft support page for it, located here:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/use-immersive-reader-in-microsoft-edge-78a7a17d-52e1-47ee-b0ac-eff8539015e1. I would definitely recommend Immersive Reader for anyone looking to improve their digital reading experience.

References

Rodriguez-Goncalves, R., Garcia-Crespo, A., Ruiz-Arroyo, A., & Matheus-Chacin, C. (2021). Development and feasibility analysis of an assistance system for high school students with dyslexia. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 111, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2021.103892

Use Immersive Reader in Microsoft Edge. (n.d.). Microsoft. Retrieved February 25, 2022, from https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/use-immersive-reader-in-microsoft-edge-78a7a17d-52e1-47ee-b0ac-eff8539015e1