Android screen reader can now answer image questions

Today is A day of awareness of global accessibility (GAAD) and, as years ago, many technology companies note the case of announcing new auxiliary characteristics for their ecosystems. Apple have Things roll Tuesday and now Google is Joining the paradeS For starters, the company made Talkback, the built-in Android screen reader, more useful. Using one of Google’s twin models, Talkback can now answer questions about images shown on your phone, even they don’t have an alt text that describes them.

“This means that the next time a friend sends you a photo of their new guitar, you can get a description and ask follow -up questions about the brand and color, or even what else is in the image,” Google explains. The fact that twins can see and understand that the image is thanks to the multimodal capabilities that Google embedded in the model. In addition, Q&A functionality works on the entire screen. So, for example, say that you are making online shopping, you can first ask your phone to describe the color of the piece of clothing you are interested in and then ask if it is on sale.

Separately, Google is introducing a new version of its expressive inscriptions. First declared at the end of last yearThe function generates subtitles that try to capture the emotion of what was said. For example, if you are a video in chat with some friends and one of them moan, after making a lame joke, your phone will not only submit what you have said, but will also include “(sternum)” in the transcription. With the new version of expressive inscriptions, the subtitles received will be reflected when someone extracts the sound of their words. This means that the next time you watch a live football match and the announcer shouts “Goalllllll”, their excitement will be properly transcribed. Plus, now there will be more sound labels like when someone clears their throat.

The new version of expressive inscriptions is deploying English -language users in the US, UK, Canada and Australia working with Android 15 and more on their phones.