The Android Earthquake Alerts System is expanding across the U.S., plus new features for Circle to Search, Google Chrome, TalkBack, and Google Maps for Wear OS.
Alongside the Android 15 source code, Google today announced the latest Android feature drop. This feature drop brings five new Android features that will help people with impaired vision better explore the Internet, search for songs, and more.
The TalkBack screen reader, which is part of the Android Accessibility Suite, helps people who are blind or have low vision understand what's shown on screen. It reads aloud any text that's shown on screen as well as any descriptive/alternative text that's provided by an app for buttons or embedded in images. Unfortunately, many images do not have alternative text for screen readers to read from, making it impossible for blind users to understand what's being shown.
Fortunately, that's where TalkBack's new AI-powered feature comes in. TalkBack can now use the Gemini large language model (LLM) from Google to generate detailed audio descriptions of images on the fly.
TalkBack using Google Gemini Nano with multimodality to generate audio descriptions of images. Source: Google.
On most Android devices, TalkBack will send images to Google's cloud servers for processing, but on select devices, it doesn't need to do so thanks to an on-device AI model.
The on-device AI model in question is Gemini Nano with multimodality model, which is only currently available on the Google Pixel 9 series. Although Gemini Nano is available on other devices such as the Pixel 8 series, Galaxy S24 series, Galaxy Z Fold 6, and Galaxy Z Flip 6, those devices are running the older, text-only version of the large language model (LLM). Gemini Nano with multimodality is an upgraded version of the LLM that supports audio, speech, and image input in addition to text.
Circle to Search is getting a new button that helps you find out what song is currently playing on your phone. The new music button is rolling out now, and when you tap it, a few seconds of the audio being played back on your phone will be sent to Google for analysis. A Google search query will open up with the track name, artist, and YouTube link if it recognizes the song.
Song search in Circle to Search. Source: Google.
Circle to Search is currently available on most Google Pixel devices and select Samsung Galaxy devices.
Google Chrome for Android can now read articles and webpages aloud using text-to-speech. Simply open the menu on any webpage and tap the "listen to this page" button that appears.
Read Aloud in Google Chrome. Source: Google.
Chrome's Read Aloud feature is widely available in the latest stable release of the browser. It previously required flipping a flag to enable, but that flag is now enabled by default on the stable release.
In the near future, the Read Aloud feature will be able to continue reading articles and webpages even while the Google Chrome app is running in the background. This capability is currently gated by a Chrome flag, though.
The Android Earthquake Alerts System is expanding to all 50 U.S. states and six U.S. territories. The feature, which is already available in 97 other countries, makes use of a hardware sensor built into almost every Android phone—the accelerometer—to detect vibrations associated with earthquakes. By crowdsourcing vibration data collected from millions of Android phones with accelerometers, the Android Earthquake Alerts System is capable of reliably detecting and warning users about earthquakes. This is especially helpful for places within the U.S. that don't have USGS ShakeAlerts set up, which currently only exist in California, Oregon, and Washington state.
Android Earthquake Alerts System. Source: Google.
The Android Earthquake Alerts System currently sends two types of warnings for earthquakes over 4.5 in magnitude: "Be Aware" Alerts that signal weak or light shaking and "Take Action" Alerts that signal moderate to extreme shaking. Once the shaking is over, you can see tips on what to do next and quickly look up information about the earthquake on Google.
Notably, this system is built into the Google Play Services app, hence it is not included in the Android 15 source code that's dropping today.
Lastly, offline maps are now available on your Wear OS smartwatch via Google Maps. Google says that when you download a map for offline use on your phone, it'll now sync to your watch as well.
Offline maps in Google Maps for Wear OS. Source: Google.
Furthermore, two new shortcuts are rolling out in Google Maps for Wear OS that let you search for destinations using your voice or view your surroundings with a tap on your watch face.
These updates to TalkBack, Circle to Search, Google Chrome, Android Earthquake Alerts System, and Google Maps for Wear OS are rolling out now to compatible Android and Wear OS devices.
This article was updated at 12:23 PM PT to reflect that TalkBack uses Google's Gemini LLM in the cloud to generate image descriptions on devices that don't support Gemini Nano with multimodality.
