How to Use Helperbird Offline

Does Helperbird Work Offline?

Yes. Helperbird is a browser extension that runs locally on your device. Most features work without an internet connection. Once the extension is installed and activated, it does not need to contact a server to apply your settings or run most tools.

Features That Work Offline

These features work fully offline because they run directly in your browser:

• Dyslexia-friendly fonts (OpenDyslexic, Atkinson Hyperlegible, Andika, Lexend)
• Font size, letter spacing, line height, and word spacing adjustments
• Background color, font color, and link color changes
• High contrast themes
• Reading ruler and reading guide
• Overlay and tint
• Text alignment
• Cursor size and color changes
• Hide images and GIFs
• Paragraph spacing and margins
• Auto-scroll
• Zoom and magnification
• Accessibility profiles
• Word prediction

Text-to-speech keeps working offline using your device's built-in voices. The Natural voices are a Pro feature and come from Microsoft Azure, so they need a connection. Helperbird switches to your device's voices on its own when you go offline.

Features That Need Internet

A small number of features send text or images to a processor and need a connection:

• Translation. Translating a whole page opens Google Translate in a new tab. Translating text opens Google Translate on the free plan; with Pro, Helperbird translates it in the popup through OpenAI.
• AI text simplification and summarization, a Pro feature (OpenAI)
• Screenshot Reader, a Pro feature that reads text and equations out of an image (OpenAI)
• Immersive Reader, including its read-aloud and picture dictionary (Microsoft Azure)
• Dictionary lookups (dictionaryapi.dev, with an OpenAI fallback)
• Voice typing, also called speech to text, a Pro feature (Microsoft Azure)

Any of these features can be disabled by your school admin through Google Admin Console using managed JSON policy. For details, see How to Disable Helperbird Features Using JSON Policy.

If you lose your connection while using one of these features, the rest of Helperbird continues to work normally. When your connection returns, these features become available again automatically.

How It Works

Helperbird is cloud-based for deployment and licensing, but the extension itself runs locally in the browser. Your settings are stored in the browser and applied on every page load without needing to contact a server.

When the extension is force-installed via Google Admin or Microsoft Intune with a managed subscription key, the license is cached locally. Students do not need to be online to have their Helperbird settings applied.

Related Guides

• How to Use Text to Speech on Any Website
• How to Use Speech to Text on Any Website
• How to Translate a Page or Selected Text
• How to Extract Text from Any Image, PDF, or Website
• How to Use Accessibility Profiles in Helperbird
• Where Helperbird Stores Your Data
• Sync or Store Data Locally in Helperbird