Google introduced on Thursday that it’s rolling out new AI and accessibility options to Android and Chrome. Most notably, TalkBack, Android’s display screen reader, now allows you to ask Gemini about what’s in pictures and what’s in your display screen.
Final 12 months, Google introduced Gemini’s capabilities to TalkBack to present people who find themselves blind or have low imaginative and prescient entry to AI-generated descriptions for pictures, even when Alt textual content isn’t out there. Now, individuals can ask questions and get responses about their pictures.
For instance, if a pal texts you a photograph a their new guitar, you may get an outline of it and ask questions in regards to the model and colour. As well as, now you can get descriptions and ask questions on your entire cellphone display screen. So, if you happen to’re buying in an app, you’ll be able to ask Gemini in regards to the materials of an merchandise you’re keen on or if there’s a low cost out there.
Google additionally introduced at this time that it’s updating Expressive Captions, Android’s real-time captions characteristic that makes use of AI to seize what somebody says, and the way they are saying it.
Google says it’s conscious that one of many methods individuals categorical themselves is by dragging out the sound of their phrases, which is why it has developed a brand new length characteristic on Expressive Captions. Now, you’ll know if a sports activities announcer is asking out an “amaaazing shot” or when somebody isn’t merely saying “no” however “nooooo.” You’ll additionally begin to see new labels for sounds, resembling when an individual is whistling or clearing their throat.
The replace is rolling out in English within the U.S., U.Okay., Canada, and Australia for units operating Android 15 and above.
Google can also be making it simpler to entry PDFs on Chrome. Up till now, you wouldn’t have the ability to use your display screen reader to work together with a scanned PDF in your desktop Chrome browser. Now, Chrome robotically acknowledges a majority of these PDFs, permitting you to focus on, copy, and seek for textual content like some other web page and use your display screen reader to learn them. That is due to the introduction of Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Google says.
Plus, Web page Zoom on Chrome on Android now allows you to enhance the scale of the textual content you see with out affecting the webpage format. You possibly can customise how a lot you need to zoom in after which select to use the choice to all the pages you go to, or simply sure ones. You possibly can entry this characteristic by tapping the three-dot menu within the prime proper nook of Chrome.
