Azure’s Immersive Reader is Available for Third-Party Apps

Microsoft has announced the general availability of Immersive Reader, an Azure service that can help make text-based apps more inclusive. If you’re familiar with the Immersive Reader functionality in Microsoft Edge, it’s like that but for any third-party app.

“Immersive Reader is an Azure Cognitive Service within the Azure AI platform that helps readers read and comprehend text,” Microsoft’s Anand Raman and Anny Dow write in the announcement post. “Developers and partners can add Immersive Reader right into their products, enabling students of all abilities to translate in over 70 languages, read text aloud, focus attention through highlighting, other design elements, and more.”

Immersive Reader consists of a Software Developer Kit (SDK) 1.1 that supports automatic page read-aloud functionality, pre-translating content, and more; 15 new Neural Text-to-Speech (TTS) languages; and support for five new translator languages.

Developers interested in using this solution can learn more on the Microsoft Docs website.