Viral 'Bionic Reading' tool now available as a Chrome extension

Bionc Reading Chrome
Bionc Reading Chrome

Bionic Reading Chrome

Bionic Reading Chrome (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

  • Bionic Reading is a new way of consuming content that is taking the internet by storm.
  • It highlights small portions of words to make them easier to read.
  • The tool is now available as a Chrome extension right in your web browser!

A viral 'Bionic Reading' tool that is taking the internet by storm is now available as a Chrome Extension for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

Bionic Reading announced the Chrome rollout on Twitter, and the extension is now available to download on Chrome. Of course, that means you can also use it on Microsoft Edge, which are both good browser options on macOS Monterey and Apple's best MacBooks and desktop computers.

Bionic Reading is a tool that highlights small portions of words to make them easier to read so that your brain can digest sentences more easily. These "fixations" can be tweaked so you can choose how much of a word shows up in bold, and the contrast levels between this and the rest of the text.

From our original story last week:

Bionic Reading was created by Swiss developer Renato Casutt. The tool is described as "a new method facilitating the reading process by guiding the eyes through text with artificial fixation points." In short, this tool makes different parts of words stand out, only highlighting the initial letters and letting your brain do the rest.

Bionic Reading

Bionic Reading (Image credit: Bionic Reading)

The Chrome extension, once downloaded, can be used to convert any website into a Bionic Reading page for your consumption. Clicking the BR button in your browser will pull up a special page similar to the Reader view in most browsers, including settings at the top to adjust all of the aforementioned parameters, font sizes, and more.

Early testing indicates this is a work in progress, the tool seems to work well on iMore, for instance, but not BBC News. You can check it out here.

Stephen Warwick
News Editor

Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design.

Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9