That’s where these 2 Chrome extensions we’ll be looking at come into play. Email Dictation is capable of reading your emails out to you while SpeakIt! transcribes your speech. By working these 2 apps into your routine, you don’t necessarily have to be locked into either reading or writing emails, allowing you to direct some of your attention elsewhere.
1. Email Dictation
Email Dictation uses Google Chrome’s built-in speech recognition engine in order to convert your speech into text within Gmail. After installing Email Dictation, there will be a microphone and gear icon that will appear among the other options when composing an email in Gmail. Click on the microphone and Gmail will begin listening for you to start talking into your microphone. Speak and your text will then be converted into speech. Clicking on the gear icon will allow you to change the dictation language. This app frees up your hands when responding to email, enabling you to carry out other activities such as dealing with any paperwork while responding to email. As mentioned before, this Chrome extension uses Chrome’s built-in speech recognition engine which is entirely accurate and was able to convert what I said correctly, most of the time.
2. SpeakIt!
SpeakIt is not just limited to Gmail, but can be used throughout Chrome to read text back to users. Just select the body of text that you wish to have read back to you and click on the SpeakIt! icon. The number of sentences which will be read back are displayed along with the icon. You can also control the volume of the text being read back to you with the volume control bar. Playback of the selected body of text can be paused and restarted at will with the play/pause button. If you feel like giving your eyes a rest, then consider giving SpeakIt! a try. The reading back of text flows smoothly most of the time.
Conclusion
Both of these apps can help you with dealing with your daily email routine and make it less taxing than it can be. With SpeakIt! you can have your emails read back to you, and you can give your eyes a rest or do something else while listening. On top of that, it isn’t just limited to Gmail. It can be used throughout your sources. With Email Dictation, you can free up your hands and type with your voice. This also enables multitasking, instead of tying a person down to just typing. ALSO READ: 4 No-nonsense Chrome Extensions that Force You to Get Work Done
