Feature Request: Bring Mobile Read Aloud Playback Controls to ChatGPT Web
The Read Aloud feature on ChatGPT Web would be much more useful with proper playback controls, especially when listening to long responses.
Current problem
When I use ChatGPT on a desktop, I often use Read Aloud for long responses while working with documents, doing research, or handling other tasks.
The main problem is that the web version does not provide convenient playback navigation. If I pause or interrupt a long response, it can be difficult to continue from where I left off. If I want to hear a specific part again, there is also no convenient way to move backward to that section.
This makes Read Aloud less practical for long-form content, even though desktop is often where users handle longer and more complex work.
Suggested improvements
I would suggest adding:
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Pause and resume while preserving the current playback position
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A draggable playback progress bar
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Skip backward and forward, such as ±10 or ±15 seconds
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Playback-position memory if Read Aloud is interrupted
These features would make it much easier to use Read Aloud for long responses without having to restart or wait for the audio to reach a specific section again.
Existing implementations
Interestingly, similar functionality already exists in other versions or services.
Google Gemini, including its free version, allows spoken responses to be paused and resumed while preserving the playback position. However, it still does not provide a proper progress bar for freely seeking backward or forward.
ChatGPT’s mobile version already provides a much better solution: it has a playback progress bar that makes navigating long spoken responses much more convenient.
So rather than requiring an entirely new interaction design, it seems that bringing the existing mobile Read Aloud playback experience to the web version would already solve most of these problems.
Why this would be useful
The web version of ChatGPT is particularly useful for desktop workflows such as document processing, research, writing, and long-form discussions. In these situations, responses can become quite long, and users may listen to them while doing other work.
For this kind of usage, Read Aloud effectively becomes a small audio player. Being able to pause, resume, move backward, move forward, and navigate with a progress bar would make it significantly more practical.
The mobile implementation already works very well. I would simply love to see the web version receive comparable playback controls.