Explainly Chrome extension icon

Explainly

👥 7 users
📦 v4.0
💾 8.61MiB
📅 2026-05-29
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Overview

Select any text on any webpage. Get an explanation that understands what it means in that sentence — not just what the dictionary says.

Explainly reads the paragraph around your selection and tells you what the author meant, the tone they used, and gives you a simpler version when you need one. Like having a well-read friend sitting beside you who just finished the same paragraph.

Instead of telling you "dreary = dull and bleak," Explainly tells you what that word does to the sentence you're reading.

── WHAT IT DOES ──

→ Context-aware meaning — explains what the selected text means in this passage, not in isolation
→ Tone detection — identifies the emotional or stylistic tone: formal, sarcastic, tense, hopeful, ironic
→ Simpler version — rewrites complex or dense sentences in plain, modern language
→ Four depth modes — ELI5 for a quick grasp, Normal for everyday reading, Deep for academic and literary analysis, Why? to understand why a line was written that way
→ Adaptive popup — automatically matches each website's light or dark background; drag it anywhere on screen

── WHO IT'S FOR ──

→ Students preparing for competitive exams — UPSC, GRE, IELTS, CAT
→ Non-native English readers who want to grasp nuance, not just translate words
→ Readers tackling dense non-fiction, academic papers, legal documents, or classic literature
→ Anyone who reads on the web daily and wants to understand more, faster — without leaving the page

── HOW IT WORKS ──

1. Install Explainly
2. Select any word, phrase, or sentence on any webpage
3. Click the small E button that appears near your selection (or press Alt+E)
4. Get an instant, context-aware explanation — right where you are reading

No tab switching. No copy-pasting into Google. No interrupting your reading flow.

── FREE ──

No account needed to start:
→ 5 instant explanations to try immediately, no sign-in required
→ Sign in free with Google for unlimited explanations

── PRIVACY ──

Explainly does not store the text you select or track the pages you visit. Anonymous users send zero data to our servers. Signed-in users store only their email address and usage count — nothing else.

Full privacy policy: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R0aBYr0qutc0VvdcejpkxXdjc7tgn1T4yOVAwpua84U/edit?usp=sharing

── PERMISSIONS JUSTIFICATION ──

storage — saves your theme, trigger mode, and sign-in token locally on your device. No data leaves your browser without your action.

identity — used solely to launch Google sign-in via Chrome's built-in OAuth flow (chrome.identity.launchWebAuthFlow). No passwords or credentials are ever handled by the extension.

tabs — used in one place only: to check whether the Library page is already open in a tab before creating a new one, so you never see duplicate tabs.

host permissions (<all_urls>) — the content script that shows the explanation popup must run on every page you choose to use it on. Explainly never reads page content unless you actively select text and request an explanation.

Tags

Productivity/education productivity/education

Privacy Practices

Not being sold to third parties, outside of the approved use cases
Not being used or transferred for purposes that are unrelated to the item's core functionality
Not being used or transferred to determine creditworthiness or for lending purposes

🔐 Security Analysis

This extension hasn't been security-scanned yet.

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