New Android accessibility features let you use your phone hands-free

On Thursday (16), World Accessibility Awareness Day, Google announced several new accessibility features that have been or are being implemented across the company’s apps and services on both Android and desktop.

The company emphasizes that new accessibility features were developed in partnership with people with disabilities.

AI-Based Updates on Android

Amid accessibility news, Google announced some AI-based updates to Android apps and features.

Lookout is an Android application that allows blind or partially sighted people to obtain information about the area around them through their mobile phone cameras.

A feature that now lets you find specific objects and places, like a table or a bathroom, has been released in beta. When users find what they want, the app gives them information about the direction and distance.

Sentences without text in Look-To-Talk

Look and Speak allows you to choose pre-written sentences to say out loud on your mobile phone. The new functionality adds the ability to choose emoticons from emojis, symbols and images. In this way, people from different cultures can communicate more fluently.

Access granted to Project Gameface

Project Gameface is a “hands-free mouse” platform aimed at Android games. It allows users with reduced mobility to control on-screen objects with basic mouse commands, but using facial movements.

Starting this week, developers will be able to access Project Gameface via GitHub to create new applications based on the technology.

New accessibility features in Maps

For Maps, Google has released Lens with voice guidance and screen readers globally in all supported languages ​​on Android and iOS. This feature allows you to find specific locations in an area and get detailed instructions to get to those locations.

Accessibility information has also been made more complete in Desktop Maps, with “wheelchair” icons in active locations. Another new feature is Auracast, which offers hearing support and can be added to organization profiles by administrators.