Android Adds Speech Tech in Latest Android Release

Google has added speech technologies that can deliver audio descriptions of images and improved text-to-speech technology for web pages in Chrome as part of the latest release of its Android mobile operating system.

The new TalkBack feature is an accessibility feature for people who are blind or have low vision. The screen reader provides detailed audio descriptions of digital images and is powered by Gemini Nano, Google's large-language-model-based platform. It even lets users hear descriptions of images.

The Listen to This Page feature allows users to listen to web pages in the Chrome browser. Users can pause, rewind and fast forward the udio, and customize their preferred listening speed, language, and voice. It supports several languages, including English, French, German, Arabic, Hindi, and Spanish.