Why Immersive Reader Does Not Work on Some Websites

What is Happening?

You opened Immersive Reader on a website like National Geographic and instead of seeing the clean reading view, you saw a white screen, a loading spinner that never finished, or an error message.

The good news is your Helperbird is working fine. The website itself is blocking Immersive Reader from loading.

Why it Happens

Immersive Reader is built by Microsoft. To show you the clean reading view, it needs to load a small Microsoft window inside the webpage you are on.

Some websites, like National Geographic, have strict security rules that do not allow any outside windows to load inside their pages. These rules are there to protect the website and its visitors. Unfortunately, those same rules also block helpful tools like Immersive Reader.

This is decided by the website, not by your browser or by Helperbird. There is no setting we can change to get around it.

How to Tell if it is This Issue

You will usually see one of these signs:

• A white or blank screen when Immersive Reader opens
• A loading spinner that keeps spinning and never finishes
• An error message in Immersive Reader
• It works fine on other websites, but not on this one

If Immersive Reader works on most websites but not on a specific one, that website is most likely blocking it.

What You Can Do

You have a few easy options to keep reading the page in a comfortable way.

Option 1: Use Reading Mode instead

Helperbird has its own built-in Reading Mode. It also gives you a clean, distraction-free reading view, and it works on websites that block Immersive Reader.

1. Open Helperbird from your browser toolbar
2. Find Reading Mode in the features list
3. Turn it on

You can read more in our guide: How to Use Reading Mode.

Option 2: Use Text to Speech

If you mainly wanted Immersive Reader to read the page out loud, you can use Helperbird's Text to Speech feature instead. It works on almost every website.

1. Highlight the text you want read aloud
2. Open Helperbird and click Text to Speech
3. Press play

You can read more in our guide: How to Use Text to Speech.

Option 3: Copy the text and use Immersive Reader on a different page

If you really want the Immersive Reader experience:

1. Highlight the article text on the page
2. Copy it
3. Open a new browser tab and go to a page that allows Immersive Reader, like a blank document or Helperbird's Notes page
4. Paste the text
5. Open Immersive Reader there

This way you still get all the Immersive Reader features, just on a different page.

Is This a Bug in Helperbird?

No. Helperbird is working as expected. The website is making the choice to block outside tools. We cannot change a website's security rules.

If a website that used to work suddenly stops working with Immersive Reader, it usually means that website has updated its security rules.

Need Additional Help?

If Immersive Reader is not working on a website and the steps above did not help, please contact the Helperbird support team. You can reach us at Helperbird support. Let us know which website you were on and we will do our best to help.