Calling All Bookworms: Any eBook Can be an Audiobook!

Loyal Android users know that technology can revive some of the things we once found the time for: keeping up with the news, being as socially apt as possible, and for many, being as smart as possible.

While Amazon and Barnes & Noble have spent years and fortunes on ad campaigns trying to convince tv-watchers to read more, their main selling point is something you already have in your pocket. The best part is that no extra purchases are necessary whatsoever – just the books you already own and want to hear read to you.

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Making media accessible on multiple platforms simultaneously was a bigger dream than many tech companies had the power to accomplish, until more recently when cloud-based technology proved how much better our devices can be managed with our apps. Initially this was done with music, then photos and videos, and then books.

As publishing companies desperately continue to push the paperback, tech companies do all they can to perfect the mobile product platforms, and that doesn’t stop with just owning the books. It doesn’t matter which authors you favor, or how you like to read their material. Having already purchased a book should mean that you have access to it no matter what, and with such advances that Google Play Books offers, now all of your books can travel with you too.

So How Does it Work?

For books and Google Newsstand media, TalkBack is the recommended app for using text-to-speech capabilities, and it’s how you’ll have your ebooks read aloud (and which all smartphones have – do your research and find out how to use this option on your phone) is you have an Android device. Check your existing apps and you’ll find it’s already downloaded with the rest of your app features.

As Google Play clarifies for users, Google Books already has the tools you need to hear your books aloud. Read Aloud, which is the feature on Google Books used to accompany all of the account holder’s media storage, can be used on any Android device and to read any kind of text, including PDFs.All you have to do to hear your book is touch the center of the page once your book is open, and on the Menu there will be an option called ‘read aloud.’ It’s that simple.

We at PSafe recommend some great PDF reading apps here, if you need a place to get started.

Once your text-to-speech feature is set up, you’re ready to hear your books! You’ll want to fish around for different voice modules, the same way you would with the voice settings on a GPS. You can read reviews to find the recommended voices for natural-sounding American accents, or find a different one that works for you.

Now whenever you buy an ebook, you get the benefits that come with it: being able to read in the dark, from anywhere, and with just about any book and edition you can think of. Now Google Play Books can turn your ebooks into audiobooks, further allowing your phone to be a convenient and educational tool that caters to your needs. It’s just one more reason to love your phone, and a great way to even convince not-so-avid readers that the habit is worth picking up again.