How to use Voice In on the new tab page?

By design, the browser does not allow Chrome extensions to interact with the default new tab page. As a result, Voice In does not work on the default new tab page in Chrome and Edge.

There is a simple fix for this: Change the new tab page

The challenge is that Chrome doesn't let you change the new tab page. It lets you change the page that opens on startup but not the new tab page. To solve this problem, we have introduced a new free extension called Custom New Tab

Custom New Tab is a Chrome extension that lets you configure the new tab page to a custom URL. You can set it to to open Google (https://google.com), Bing (https://bing.com), or better yet set it to the Voice In Testpad (https://dictanote.co/voicein/notepad/). It is a tiny 50kb extension, 100% free and without tracking.

Instructions to set up a custom new tab

Step 1: Install the Custom New Tab extension from the Chrome Web Store: Web Store Link

Click on "Add to Chrome" to install it.

Step 2: After installation, a page will open up, asking you to configure the new tab URL. Enter your desired new tab page URL.

Enter https://google.com to set it to Google, https://bing.com for Bing, or better yet https://dictanote.co/voicein/test/ to set it to Voice In Testpad. Click Save to save this setting.

That's it. Your new tab page will now point to this new URL, and you can use Voice In on it!

Set the new tab URL to a local file URL

You can point the new tab to a local file URL too.

A local file URL looks like file:///C:/Documents/test.html on Windows file:///Users/anil/test.html on Mac. To get the local file URL of a file on your system, open the file in a new tab in your browser. Then copy the URL shown in the address bar.

The first time you set the custom new tab URL to a local file URL, you will be see a prompt to grant permission like below. Click on Grant Permission.

This will open the extension's settings page. Scroll down to "Allow access to file URLs" setting and enable it.

The extension should now be able to set the new tab page to your local file.

Disable Custom New Tab

If you ever want to revert back to built-in Chrome new tab page, you can do so by disabling the Custom New Tab extension.

To disable the custom new tab extension

1. Open the URL chrome://extensions in a new tab.

2. Disable the Custom New Tab extension