TL;DR
- Google has announced new AI & accessibility features for Android as well as Chrome.
- The two major updates for Android are Advanced Talkback & More Vivid Expressive Captions.
- Updates for Chrome include better access to PDF, & Page Zoom.
Almost all leading technology firms are taking part in Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) by enhancing the accessibility of their products and services, and Google is no different. This Thursday, Google unveiled two new AI-driven enhancements for Android that build on features previously introduced for the mobile operating system. Updates to Android include Talkback made better and more vivid expressive captions.
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Advanced Talkback Capability
The initial update is to Android’s screen reader, TalkBack, which integrated Gemini features last year. Leveraging the capabilities of Google’s Gemini, TalkBack can now offer enhanced support to blind and low-vision Android users by delivering more accurate and detailed descriptions of online images that lack alt text.
Today, the integration of TalkBack with Gemini is enhanced, enabling users to inquire about images they encounter. For instance, if a friend shares a photo of a car, you can pose follow-up questions to TalkBack regarding its make and model. Additionally, TalkBack is now capable of responding to inquiries about all content displayed on your device’s screen simultaneously.
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More Vivid Expressive Captions
In 2024, Google unveiled another AI-driven feature called Expressive Captions, designed to convey not only the spoken content but also the manner of communication. This feature highlights fully capitalized words, identifies vocal sounds such as sighs, gasps, and grunts, and provides descriptions of background noises like cheering or birds chirping.
In its latest update, Google has introduced a duration feature for Expressive Captions, enhancing the context of a speaker’s dialogue. For instance, when a baseball player hits a long home run, a caption may read, ‘That’s waaaaaay out of here,’ while a soccer player scoring will prompt the announcer to exclaim, ‘Gooooooooal!’ Furthermore, Google indicates that Expressive Captions will also feature additional sound labels, including whistling and throat clearing.
The latest version of the Expressive Captions feature is rolling out now in English in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia for devices running Android 15 and above.
Updates to Chrome
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Google is enhancing the Chrome browser by improving access to scanned PDF files. Previously, screen readers were unable to interact with these files. However, with the introduction of Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Chrome can now identify text within scanned PDFs, allowing for searchability and readability with screen readers. Additionally, the Page Zoom feature on Chrome for Android has been upgraded. Users can now zoom in on text without disrupting the webpage layout, with options to adjust the zoom level and apply it to all sites or select ones.
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