Google has just rolled out a wave of new AI and accessibility features for Android and Chrome, bringing a smarter and more inclusive experience for users everywhere! The biggest highlight? TalkBack, Android’s screen reader, now allows users to ask Gemini (Google’s AI) questions about what’s in images or even what’s on their screen. This means people who are blind or have low vision can now get AI-generated image descriptions, even when there’s no Alt text.

Let’s say your friend sends you a photo of their brand-new guitar you can now ask Gemini what brand it is, what color, and get full descriptions instantly. That’s not all. You can now ask questions about your entire phone screen too! For example, while browsing in a shopping app, you can ask Gemini, What’s this item made of? or Is there any discount available? But that’s just the start.

“Expressive Captions” Get Smarter

Google is also upgrading Expressive Captions Android’s real-time captions feature to not only capture what someone is saying but also how they’re saying it. Thanks to a new duration feature, captions will now reflect drawn-out words too.

So now, you’ll know if a sports commentator is yelling an “amazing shot” or if someone’s just not saying “no” but dragging it out as “nooooo.” You’ll also see new sound labels like when someone is whistling or clearing their throat  making the experience even richer and more natural. This incredible update is rolling out in English to users in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia on devices running Android 15 and above.

Chrome Gets a Boost Too!

On the Chrome browser, Google has solved a big problem. Previously, scanned PDFs weren’t accessible for screen readers  but now, thanks to Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Chrome can detect and read scanned text. You can now highlight, copy, search, and even have screen readers read them just like regular web pages. And there’s more Chrome on Android now that offers a Page Zoom feature. You can increase text size without messing up the page layout. Choose your zoom level and apply it to all sites or just your favorites. To access it, tap the three-dot menu at the top-right of Chrome.