Google is rolling out five new Android features as part of its September 2024 update sporting a connecting theme of “exploration.” While they’re not major upgrades, they all aim to help people access what they’re looking for more seamlessly.
Starting from the top, Android’s TalkBack tool is receiving an AI upgrade. The feature helps blind people and those with low vision navigate the internet by providing an audio description of onscreen images. Moving forward, those descriptions will now be powered by Gemini. The presumed goal here is to have the AI provide improved text outputs to better explain the photos in a camera roll or pictures on social media.
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Next, Circle to Search has officially gained the ability to look up songs playing on a web page or a nearby speaker. To activate it, Google revealed that you must press the Home button or navigation bar first as usual. Then, tap the music button (as indicated by the note icon) to identify the track name, and artist, and even open a YouTube video of the song. We have seen this feature crop up in previous patches although it wasn’t widely available. It’s good to see that the feature finally has an official release.
The Chrome app is seeing its own patch too. Users now have the option to “listen to [a] page” within the mobile browser — offering the option to choose different voices, languages, and listening speeds.
Google is also expanding its Android Earthquake Alert System to all US states and six of the nation’s territories. This will provide “life-saving warnings seconds before shaking starts” and advice on what to do after it stops.
As someone who lives in California, I find earthquakes can be very scary. It is essential that people are well-informed when one happens especially because aftershocks often happen. This tool ensures you won’t have to look up Google Search for details. The information will be sent right to you.
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Lastly, users can download maps for offline viewing from Google Maps onto a smartwatch running WearOS. Google is even throwing in two additional shortcuts with the patch. One lets you look up destinations with your voice and the other lets you check out your surroundings by tapping directly on the watch face.
Keep an eye out for these new round of updates. If you don’t have them already, they’ll be arriving to your Android shortly.
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