Google Unveils AI-Powered Accessibility Upgrades for Android and Chrome
On May 15, 2025,Google unveiled a suite of AI-driven accessibility enhancements across Android and Chrome platforms.
These updates aim to improve digital accessibility for users with visual and hearing impairments, integrating advanced AI capabilities into core functionalities.
Key Enhancements
TalkBack Enhanced with Gemini AI: Android’s screen reader, TalkBack, now incorporates Google’s Gemini AI, enabling users to receive detailed descriptions of on-screen images and content.
This feature allows users to ask follow-up questions about images, such as identifying objects or colors, providing a more interactive and informative experience for individuals who are blind or have low vision.
Introduction of Expressive Captions: The new Expressive Captions feature utilizes AI to generate real-time captions that convey not only spoken words but also the speaker’s tone, emotions, and non-verbal sounds like laughter or sighs.
Initially available in English, this feature is rolling out to devices running Android 15 and above in select regions, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia.
Chrome Accessibility Improvements: Google Chrome has introduced a customizable text zoom feature on Android, allowing users to enlarge text without altering the overall layout of web pages.
This enhancement includes a slider for adjusting text size and the option to save preferences for individual sites or globally.
Additionally, Chrome’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology now enables users to detect and interact with text in scanned PDFs, facilitating actions like highlighting, copying, and screen reading.
Support for Speech Recognition Development: In an effort to broaden accessibility, Google is contributing open-source datasets for 10 African languages, supporting developers in creating speech recognition tools tailored to diverse linguistic communities.
Other Launch of Google
Prior to its latest accessibility updates,Google’s most recent major launch was the Pixel 8a smartphone, unveiled in early May 2025.
Another launched of Google was Circle to Search and Gemini integration in Google Workspace.
Circle to Search allows users to circle content on Android screens for instant search results, enhancing multitasking.
Meanwhile, Gemini brings smart suggestions and text generation to Docs, Gmail, and Sheets, boosting productivity with AI-powered assistance across everyday Google tools.
News Gist
Google launched AI-powered accessibility features for Android and Chrome, including TalkBack with Gemini AI, Expressive Captions, and improved text zoom and OCR in Chrome.
It also released speech datasets for African languages.
Earlier in May, Google introduced the Pixel 8a, Circle to Search, and Gemini in Workspace.
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