Reviews & Comments of Bionic Reading chrome extension

Working great so far for reading books online.

broken cant use

It works, but there is far too much contrast between the bold and the fine print to be legible. ETA: And now it won't turn off, even when removing the extension.

love the idea, but it really should just do the BR stuff on any text on the page, in context, not in some other viewer that cant handle site functionality. i think this may only be for long articles or books, so i wont use this much at all.

Works just fine. Pin the extension to your browser > navigate to the page you want to read > click the extension favicon and the page will load. Would prefer the next to be modified in page so all images/graphics could remain vs being navigated to a new text only view. Still pretty good for news sites.

The App is not working because it is not requesting the correct permissions to work.

PLEASE MAKE THIS WORK!!

Does not work

Downloaded the extension but could not figure out how to make it work.

does not work right now

Currently doesn't work.

Doesn't work. The idea could be good but too bad the extention does nothing. I'd love to find researches on wether the method actually makes reading faster. With quick search on Google Scholar, I didn't find such. The method itself could have potential but it needs to be studied and it science supports it, there should be proper ways to utilize it. If it works, I'm sure there'd be high demand for it, especially among dyslexics.

not good

The idea is really there, but the execution is so poor, when it comes to taking the text outside the app. This method genuinely helps me read much faster and actually process the information I read, but I cannot do much with the text outside the Bionic App website. - First of all, there is no plain text download option, which makes it hard to copy and paste large bits pf text without downloading it first. - Second of all, when you copy and paste the text from the BR website app to Word, the words and sentences get broken down: you end up with parts of the words on the next line, which are not detected as next paragraph, and same goes for sentences – all of that screws up the formatting - PDF download option is BAD. Regardless of the settings I put to the BR app, when I download the PDF, most of the page is brank, and the actual text is large and only few words per line, which makes the document have too many pages and very hard to read. - The Chrome extension doesn’t work on a lot of websites

doesnt work

Doesn't work terrible.

When I click on only necessary cookies, the extension doesn't work.

buggy, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. also in the future it would be ideal if it didn't make a whole new reading screen but instead copied how the original page looks and edit the text on the screen and keep the appearance of the original screen

Doesn't work on any website...

Needs a little bit more customisation options (the 820 width is simply not enough for me, still looks very portrait-y on a landscape screen), but otherwise I love it.

The concept? Fantastic. The Web Version on their site? Magnific! Android version, flawless. Saddly this chrome extension version doesn't seem to work. Tried on the following sites: Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Youtube, TikTok, 5eTools, Instagram, GOOGLE, this own page, Tumblr, Ao3, Deviantart, Behance, Artistation, Linkedin. None worked. Not even the supposed panel on the side to give options and setup things appeared. I'll revisit this in the future, and hope the devs iron out the problems. Also, i have to say, i use a variety of other Chrome Plugins, like Tampermonkey, UBlockOrigin (disabled while testing BR, Dark Reader (Disabled while testing), Mute Tab , Volume Booster, ShinigamiEyes, Return Youtube Dislike, TwoSeven and TwitchChatPronoums) Maybe ShinigamiEyes is interfering, because it also add color to some texts? But well, i hope to see this expanded and fixed. Thanks for the great work folks. But for now, i have to give a low score.

First website I tried it on was reddit, and it doesn't work on there... Kinda useless in its current state

This is such a great concept and is really helpful... when it actually works. As many other reviewers have mentioned, it doesn't work a lot of the time and for seemingly no reason. As someone with ADHD who is currently studying History in college, I often have to do a lot of reading online, which can be very difficult for me. While Bionic Reading works (sometimes) on regular pdfs, it does not seem to work on at all on pdfs that are photocopies. I understand that scanning text from a photocopy is not the same as scanning it on a website, but this sort of function does exist (see: Apple products) and should be included. Bionic Reading has a ton of potential but is ultimately a disappointment.

Doesn't work

Seems to work decently well on PDFs... leaves a lot to be desired on websites though. Long loading times, majority of the time it doesn't end up working.

It's a good idea but the extension simply doesn't work. It worked once and then it never initialized again. And even when it did work that one time, I messed around with the settings and that barely worked too. This is a good concept, but as an extension it's simply not good. A better developer should make something like this.

It works too well. For the first time I was able to read a whole paragraph without the needs to repeat and blank out. In fact, I seemed to read so fast I need to slow down when I'm using this for reading novels. Worked as intended and thank you for making this thing.

doesn't work

1. doesn't work on most websites 2. when it does work it's slow to initialize 3. it wants to use cookies (and keeps asking constantly when you decline. Very invasive). This plugin just seems too fishy to use. Do not recommend

doesnt work

You're better off using the website

doesnt work.

Doesnt work as intended, takes FOREVER to load/ doesnt work for many sites. Not worth the hassle unfortunately

The extension doesnt work, it just overlays a translucent screen with a loading image in the centre. It seems to be constantly loading.

Doesn't work

Didn't work, just loaded forever.

Unfortunately doesn't work. Windows, Chrome. Tried multiple news sites, then various other sites, including Wikipedia. You can click the BR button which then adds a translucent "..." loading overlay on the page, and that's it. I tried over 10 different pages, but never waited more than a couple minutes, because that's all the time I would need to read the entirety of the text it's supposed to convert anyway. Maybe it would work if I waited more than 30 minutes, haven't tried. Same result whether ad block is turned on or off. I have to assume they send the site to their (no longer existing) server instead of doing the modification locally in a few milliseconds, which would explain why it seems to have worked for some users at one point.

Didn't work. Tried it on several websites for blogs and articles. Doesn't do anything.

I was hype when I first saw this and tried it out. So, no instructions. The extension doesn't tell much by it self so I just try it on Wikipedia, and it works. I just load up a wiki page and clicked the extension bar. It takes a little while to get it all fixated. There were tons of settings to choose to your liking and you can also download but it turns out squished to the right side? I don't know how to fix it though. Then I tried it on my gdrive & onedrive files and by the time I'm still writing this review, it is still loading... I don't think my file are that long but this extension is still loading it up and I don't know if this is still working. Also, if I put up files from my computer and tried the extension, it also doesn't work. There are some sites that works but most of it doesn't ( which is a bummer ). I really disliked how it took too long to load, on wikis its okayish but in others takes waaaaayy too long. I just hoped the developers would fix this and I would really love to change this review if only this extension works. But for now only 2/5 :) and my files are still loading...

yep doesnt work

Yep, doesn't work.

lol its not even working

Unfortunately doesn't work. Great idea, poor execution. Does not change appearance of text on google chrome.

Not working, not giving any popup message why

doesn't work

Does not work. Why even bother publishing it?

It won't work. Love the idea but an idea without execution is nothing...

Extension does not work

Would be 5 stars. If it worked. It worked once, and it was great! Once.... So thats how many stars it gets... 1... Id give it less if I could... But 1 star for the idea is fair.. Hopefully some *capable* devs recreate this concept SO IT ACTUALLY WORKS

100% does not work. I have a lot of scientific papers to read and ADHD, so something like this would be amazing. But it doesn't work. A waste of time.

Everyone is correct. This does not work. But not only does the extension not work but nor does their website. I installed this extension with hopes I would have better luck but didn't. Seems that various people are getting various issues. When I use this either in the extension or directly from their site at this link... https://app.bionic-reading.com/ I can make everything else work but the 'send to kindle'. Yes, I made sure their email was authorized to send me stuff. But no matter what I do, the 'Send' button will not enable itself so that it can be clicked on. Tried several times but none of the attempts worked. This is very disappointing considering the hype around all this. Surprised everything related to this application is glitching all over the place in different ways for everyone. In my opinion? Doesn't look good for their company.

This is a great idea. I love the thought behind it, but the execution doesn't live up to its potential. It didn't work on most sites I tried to use it on. It like of worked on the scientific literature I was reading when I used their website portal, but it messed up the figures within the article, so I had to flip back and forth. I also wish this font was available for download or within Microsoft Word (I know they can't do that without Microsoft, obviously), but I would pay to be able to download this font so I could add it to my own Microsoft App. It would be extremely helpful when reading over your own papers to help catch small errors in text.

Simply doesn't work - I don't understand and I cannot find instructions anywhere. This is not accessible as it took me a long time to even figure out how to get the extension on their website. After reading other reviews looking for answers, yes to dark mode and no to toxic developers.

Idea looks great, but it doesn't work, and was significantly slowing down Gmail.

It doesnt work, great idea but terrible execution.

I wanted it to work but it did nothing. Deleting immediately.

Installed this to try it out but then saw their privacy practices indicate that they can collect all content and user activity, they can take any sensitive information you enter or look at, so it's essentially spyware. Immediately uninstalled.

It does not work, not even on one site.

Website does nothing. Android app does nothing. Extension pretends to work on a single NYT artile for 30 minutes.

Doesn't work

It doesnt work nine out of ten times, thought that this can help me by a long way.

Only works on news sites as a separate overlay. If you want something that works everywhere (including uni intranet) and just changes the font on the web page, go download Jiffy Reader instead.

It doesn't seem to do anything. I click the icon and nothing pops up, none of my font is different, nothing.

Great concept, well marketed (perhaps a little over designed!) but... I can't seem to use the browser extension on anything?

Haven't found a single site that it works on. Every site says "unauthorized", or doesn't do anything at all. Hasn't worked on any articles as it says it does.

Did not work on most sites I wanted to use it on. Imagine if I could bioncial read my lecture notes, but this extension wont help

Missing dark mode.

Super helpful tool, would love to see this integrated into more digital content as an option. I would love it if the plug-in, had a just look at highlighted text function

The extension seems fine for reading articles online - but doesn't give the option to change the reader-mode into dark mode for those of us with low-vision. There's also the issue as Elijah Richardson pointed out 6 days ago (at time of this review) of the developers really being toxic to other developers attempting to create further accessibility with the bionic-reader programs. My biggest complaint in usability is that outside of a "reader-view" this extension is useless. There is very little support for being able to use it in real time on webpages. Pages that can support it, need refreshed in order for the bionic-reading extension to overlay onto the page - and a lot of times ends up messing up the overall layout of a screen. I attempted to use this on facebook, as I am able to use the dyslexic overlay extensions just fine there - and it is a good test for the functionality and usability of the extension (a stress test of it if you will...) and it basically choked. Not only would it throw the page into reader view, but the close button would end up blacked out and wouldn't allow me to close the reader to exit into my regular browsing mode, but it also causes the extension itself to end up stuck in the toggled on position but without changing any of the text on screen. The only way I am able to get it to shut back off is by removing and adding the extension back onto chrome. I feel like there is still a great amount of work that needs to be done to make this extension completely usable, but if the developer is unwilling to actually work with others peacefully toward their common goal of assisting people with difficulty processing written word then I think it may be a stalemate. It is a good thing to want to help people and create better accessibility to the world around us, but your pride shouldn't be getting in the way of providing this to people when your website makes it sound like you want to do this out of the goodness of your heart. In the meantime, I am just going to keep using OpenDyslexic since it allows me to use it outside of a reader-mode, on facebook, and on sites like Roll20 where I play D&D with my friends. Bionic Reading, at this current time, just can't keep up with what I actually need it to do.

It's good enough to show you the concept itself, but it is too slow to get going, it forces on to read on a white screen, and the developer is unfriendly (to the point of threatening legal action) to other developers creating similar (and better) implementations. Thus, if you think this reading style is helpful to you, go grab Jiffy Reader or TorpedoRead (there are many others as well), which allow you to get the reading benefit but on the very page you are using.

I just read something 10 times faster than normal with no distractions - this is going to change my life. Seriously I'm near tears - this is amazing. Sincerest thank you's to the development team.

Great piece of kit - Users must remember to clear browser cache and activate the extension or reload the webpage in order for it to work. Haven't tried this whilst using dark mode.

Cool concept, just wished it actually worked. Tried a dozen different sites and pages. It identified the text fine, but zero text got bolded. Shame.

Really excited about this extension and its potential; some little QoL changes I would make: - Text settings have to be adjusted every time. - Settings should have a hover tag description instead of just a symbol. - PDF functionality is a must to really take advantage of thsi extension for longer reads. - Code should be open source, would love to contribute to see this changes implemented.

Helps me read things much quicker! However, it isn't compatible with my Dark Reader extension, so I have to turn off the extension for it to load. I wish it would just reformat the text within the context of the original page (instead of creating a separate pop-up) since some articles reference specific images. I also wonder if a dark mode could be implemented or if it would lose its effectiveness. But it's a great start!

Would be nice if the settings have pop-up text explaining what each icon means Also, can you guys also make dark mode setting? Dark grey background with white text would be perfect! Love the product, looking forward for improvements!

Didn't work on either gmail (at all) or google results (like 90% of the words didn't work). Really weird. Didn't bother trying anything else.

If this had a dark mode I would love it. It doesn't play well with Dark Reader extension either so there's no help there. Please, please, please make dark mode a thing and fast!!

Works but rather laggy, hangs a lot. Hopefully it will get developed more and more intuitive in the future, removed the extension for now.

Love the concept. The application needs a little more work to become useful in everyday tasks. Most important is dark mode. The eye strain is too much with the mostly white page. Second is the new tab. If this could be updated to re-render the original page with the bionic text applied, it would be phenomenal. Keep it up.

Literally doesn't work on any page. There is no button, even when I manually turn it on, it does nothing.

Samples look easy to read. But no BR button, nothing on right click even after a restart of chrome.

Didn't work on the site I downloaded it for, AO3. It just stayed on the loading screen.

Actually pretty awesome facility, but so far it doesn't work on a number of websites I've tried. On BBC news the button clicked and nothing at all happened. On The Guardian it popped up a window with the article text but nothing was emboldened. But on Medium it seemed to work, and pulled up the text of the page with a toolbar at the top that let me change the level of the effect. So five stars for awesomeness, but reduced to four because the extension fails completely (without notice) on a number of sites.

I want it and have got the extension but there's no BR button on my news pages, or anywhere in the browser. How do I use it?

I had hoped it'd simply integrate into webpages, changing the fonts. Instead it's often a seperate tab or overlay.

Pretty good. Could use some additional features like a "reset to default" button. Some Tooltips would also be nice for the various buttons, including the idea behind each setting.

The idea is good. It does help me to read easier. Very creative. But there's an issue with the config. So it appears to remember my font config, but when I tap to render a new page, it's actually back to the default config (although the config above shows my correct config). I have to adjust a random config to make my personal config works. Please fix this, it'll be amazing.

I click the extension button and nothing happens. No options, nothing.

It only ever shows a loading indicator, doesn't do anything else.

Installed the extension on Brave and Google chrome - haven't been able to test this as none of the pages ever load after pressing the extension button.

Doesn't work on Google Docs

I'm so grateful to have this extension. I can now start the process of reclaiming my independence of being able to read an article by myself. I no longer have to ask someone to read it to me due to my inability to focus on what I'm reading without giving up in defeat. This is incredibly useful to those of us that suffer with ADHD.

Add firefox extensiontoo

Great concept, but long way to go. The reader section is too narrow, could not find a way to adjust it.

Great innovative way of reading. However I'd like labels for each setting. I shouldn't need to guess what each setting does by looking at the icon.

I installed it and nothing happened...

I can read good

given depth-perception (related to years of staring at screens) issues i have, it greatly enhances my reading performance. I also set span{font-family:monospace;} for an added boost

Does not currently work in Microsoft Edge 80.0.361.48.

like it, adding dark mode will make it perfect, thank you

Super! Very nice little helper tool. I am fascinated about the effectiveness - can you build the functionality into an PDF reader? Looking forward...