In a blog post, Android consumer brand management director Jason Fournier wrote that the company wanted the bugdroid to "appear as dynamic as Android itself." By overhauling the full-body look of the mascot, the hope is that it will be easier for the bugdroid to look consistent across both digital and real-world environments. The refreshed bugdroid and updated logo will start appearing on Android devices and elsewhere later this year.

Along with the rebrand, Google has revealed the details of the quarterly Android feature drop. The headline feature is a new widget called Assistant At a Glance. The aim of this is to bring helpful information such as weather alerts, event reminders and travel updates. The widget uses AI to surface these details.

There's a very useful-sounding accessibility feature coming to Android imminently. It's called Image Q&A on Lookout. You'll be able to use voice commands or type questions to find out more details about AI-generated audio descriptions of visual content. Google designed the feature with blind and low-vision people in mind.

You'll soon be able to add passes with barcodes and QR codes (such as your library and gym cards) to Google Wallet to save you having to carry those around. There will be the option to add Fitbit/Google Fit activity and sleep data to personal routines to help you keep track of your wellness goals. Meanwhile, Google has redesigned the Personal Safety app with the goal of making it easier for users to share their live location, record surroundings and call 911.

Last but not least is an Android Auto update. Webex and Zoom support is coming soon. You'll be able to join conference calls via audio and view meeting schedules on the car's display. We've seen automakers bring meeting apps to their infotainment systems, but Android Auto support may mean that there's no escape from a conference call.

These features, which Google is rolling out gradually, will start arriving today on the Pixel 5, Pixel 5a and Pixel 4a. They'll land on Pixel 6 and Pixel 7-series phones as well as the Pixel Fold over the next few weeks. You can expect all of these features on the latest batch of Pixel devices that Google will announce next month too.

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Seeing AI’s latest features were built with the help of feedback from users. Microsoft says the app now offers more detailed descriptions of images. By default, Seeing AI will provide a brief summary of what a photo depicts. When a user taps the “more info” icon, the app will generate a far more in-depth description of the image. Move your finger over the screen and the app can tell you about the locations of various objects. Photos can be imported from other apps too.

Another feature Microsoft recently rolled out following feedback from users is the ability to ask questions about a document. After scanning a document, you can ask Seeing AI questions about things such as menu items or the price of an item on a bill. You can also ask it to summarize an article you have scanned. The app provides the user with audio guidance on how to scan a printed page.

Seeing AI offers users many other ways to find out about the world around them by pointing their camera at or taking a photo of something. For instance, the app will read out a short piece of text as soon as the camera picks it up. Seeing AI can scan barcodes and provide product information such as the name and details from packaging when available, which could be particularly useful when it comes to dealing with medication.

In addition, the app can help identify people (and their facial expressions), currency, colors and brightness. It’s also able to read handwritten text in some languages.

Seeing AI is landing on Android on the International Day of People with Disabilities. The app is now available in 18 languages: Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian Bokmal, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. Microsoft plans to expand that number to 36 languages in 2024.

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This is the first time Amazon is working on gaze-based navigation of its devices, and it will use the camera on the Max 11 to keep track of where a user is looking. The preset actions include smart home controls, media playback and making calls. Eye Gaze will be available on the Max 11 later this year at no additional cost. The company said during its event that this is "still day one for this technology — we're very excited about its potential." Amazon did not otherwise release any details on how Eye Gaze actually works.

Amazon is also adding a new Call Translation feature that will transcribe Alexa calls on Echo Show devices and display onscreen captions. It can convert them into over 10 languages including English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. It will launch later this year on Echo Show devices and the Alexa app for users in the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Call captioning is also being expanded to Europe.

Follow all of the news live from Amazon’s 2023 Devices event right here.

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Not a lot is currently known about how the feature will work, but I was able to spend some time with Microsoft’s accessibility program manager Solomon Romney to get a deeper understanding. Romney was born without fingers on his left hand and struggles to use standard touchpads on most laptops. Adaptive Touch allows him to drag his left hand on the glass-covered surface and not have the cursor jump around the screen.

The first thing to point out is that the adaptive touch feature currently requires a haptic trackpad to work, meaning at the moment it’s only available on the Surface Laptop Studio 2. You’ll have to go into the computer’s touchpad settings and enable Adaptive Touch, which throws up an alert that you won’t be able to use multitouch gestures like pinch to zoom.

That’s because the system is looking for multiple points of contact with the trackpad and noticing if they’re moving in the same general direction, to determine where to move the mouse. It’s in part based on the technology that Microsoft uses for palm rejection, but reconfigured for Adaptive Touch.

Microsoft barely mentions this feature in its materials announcing the Surface Laptop Studio 2, and Google searches for terms like “Microsoft inclusive trackpad” or “Surface Laptop Studio 2 accessibility touchpad” yield unrelated results. It’s clear there’s still a lot to understand about how Adaptive Touch works and what its limits are. For now, though, it's encouraging to see Microsoft continue to design for inclusivity.

Follow all of the news live from Microsoft’s 2023 Surface event right here.

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Every article and newsletter will feature the Immersive Reader icon, which provides access to several accessibility tools. A text-to-speech function can read articles out loud. LinkedIn says that "distinguishing between words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently makes it easier for auditory learners and those with visual impairments to consume and process content." The tool supports more than 60 languages. On a similar note, Immersive Reader powers real-time translation for more than 100 languages.

Other features include one called Content Isolation. This separates the main text of an article or newsletter from everything else that's on the screen to help people focus on reading. Immersive Reader is able to isolate a line or two at a time as well. It also supports a feature called Syllable Splitting. According to LinkedIn, this breaks more complex words down into smaller components to help users understand and pronounce them.

Immersive Reader has been making its way into several Microsoft products and services over the last few years. It's been available in Office and Minecraft: Education Edition for some time. Bringing the tool to LinkedIn should make the platform easier to use for folks with dyslexia and other conditions.

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The changes include a new “media” tab in search and within individual subreddits so users can more easily browse images, video clips, and GIFs. Additionally, search results in Reddit’s app and website are getting a simpler, cleaner look.

Reddit is also making search easier for people using the mobile version of its site who aren’t logged in. Now, logged out searches will have more filters, as well as separate tabs for comments and posts. And mobile web searches are 85 percent faster overall, according to the company.

There are also search improvements specifically for Redditors who rely on screen readers. “The posts and comments tabs on the search result page are now screen reader compatible on native mobile apps,” Reddit explains in a blog post. “We’re adding labels, roles/traits, values, and states to all elements on these pages to help redditors discover content and take action. If a redditor uses a screen reader, they can hear the actions available and the results returned on these tabs.”

That change could help the company address some of the long-running accessibility complaints about its app. Members of r/blind were some of the most vocal opponents to the company’s API crackdown, which resulted in the shuttering of many third-party apps. The company later said that it would exempt some accessibility-focused apps from its API fees, but the moderators of r/blind have said the concession isn’t enough, and that the company has “made it impossible for blind Redditors to moderate their own sub.” While Reddit’s latest updates don’t address blind users’ complaints about its moderation tools, the changes could still be a significant improvement for people who browse the app with screen readers.

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Logitech has teamed up with Sony to release an Adaptive Gaming Kit for the controller. It includes eight buttons and triggers you can plug into the peripheral. These include two small and two large buttons with mechanical switches, two light-touch buttons and two variable trigger controls. These are all configurable on the console to best meet a player’s needs. The kit includes labels with PS5 symbols that you can attach to the buttons and triggers, along with mats and velcro ties to keep everything in place.

The Adaptive Gaming Kit, which will be available in January, costs $80. Logitech previously released a version for the Xbox Adaptive Controller. Since both console platforms’ accessibility controllers use industry-standard 3.5mm connectors, the Xbox variant of Logitech’s kit should be compatible with the Access controller. Still, perhaps you’d prefer stickers with PlayStation symbols to help keep track of what’s what.

Meanwhile, Sony has offered a look at the accessible packaging for the upcoming peripheral. It designed the packaging so that you can open it with one hand by pulling loops from either side. The company said that the components are placed in a single layer to make it easy to identify them.

The Access Controller will be available on December 6. Pre-orders are open at the PlayStation Direct store.

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Google notes that if you have the wheelchair-accessible option enabled in your transit preferences, this will automatically be applied to walking routes too. Otherwise, when you request a walking route, you can access stair-free directions by tapping the three dots at the top of the screen and enabling the "wheelchair-accessible" option.

On a related note, wheelchair-accessible information will be available across more Google products, namely on Maps for Android Auto and cars with Google built in. When you search for a place and tap on it, a wheelchair icon will appear if the location has a step-free entrance, accessible restrooms, parking or seating.

It should be easier to find and support businesses owned by people with disabilities in Maps and Search too. If a business chooses to identify itself as "disabled-owned," this will be mentioned in Maps and Search listings. Google previously rolled out similar Asian-owned, Black-owned, Latino-owned, LGBTQ+ owned, veteran-owned and women-owned business labels.

Elsewhere, Google is enabling screen reader capabilities in Lens in Maps (which was previously called Search with Live View), an augmented reality tool that's designed to help you find things like ATMs, restrooms and restaurants with the help of your handset's camera. When you're in a perhaps unfamiliar place, you can tap the camera icon in the search bar and point your phone at the world around you.

"If your screen reader is enabled, you’ll receive auditory feedback of the places around you with helpful information like the name and category of a place and how far away it is," Eve Andersson, senior director on Google's Products for All team, wrote in a blog post. This Lens in Maps feature, which is geared toward blind and low-vision folks, will be available on iOS starting today and Android later this year.

On Pixel devices, the Magnifier app uses your camera to help you zoom in on real-world details from afar or to make text on menus and documents easier to read with the help of color filters, brightness and contrast settings. The app is available for Pixel 5 and later devices, but not the Pixel Fold.

Google also notes that the latest version of Guided Frame that arrived on Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro earlier this month recognizes pets, dishes and documents in addition to faces to help people who are blind or have low-vision take good-quality photos. The Guided Frame update is coming to Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 devices later this year.

Meanwhile, Google is offering more customizable Assistant Routines. The company says you'll be able to add a Routine to your home screen as a shortcut, determine the size of it and customize it with your own images. "Research has shown that this personalization can be particularly helpful for people with cognitive differences and disabilities and we hope it will bring the helpfulness of Assistant Routines to even more people," Andersson wrote. Google developers took inspiration from Action Blocks for this feature.

Last but not least, Google earlier this year added a feature to the desktop Chrome address bar to detect typos and suggest websites based on what the app reckons you meant. The feature will be available on Chrome on iOS and Android starting today. The idea is to help folks with dyslexia, language learners and those who make typos more easily find what they're seeking.

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Wireless controller pairing no longer requires direct console contact. “From the comfort of a couch, wheelchair, hospital bed, etc., players can now put their console into pairing mode using an Xbox media remote, digital assistant voice command, or previously paired controller to connect a new controller to their console,” the company wrote today in a blog post. An official online support document walks you through the setup steps.

Microsoft also announced that “almost 90 keyboard keys” will soon be remappable to the Xbox Adaptive Controller and Elite Series 2 controllers. The idea is to make it easier for people with disabilities to play games that only support mouse / keyboard input. One example the company provides is reprogramming the left bumper to Ctrl+C for copying text.

In addition, the company is simplifying the steps to view options from the Xbox Accessibility menu. Beginning on October 19, the Xbox Game Bar on Windows will let you jump to accessibility settings via widgets. “In the updated Xbox widgets, you’ll find both visual and audio-related accessibility controls to customize your PC gaming experience according to your preferences and needs,” Microsoft wrote. Once the feature launches, you’ll get to the accessibility options via the settings button for “any of the new Xbox widgets in Game Bar.”

Finding accessibility-friendly games is about to get easier, too. The Xbox store now has a channel devoted to Accessibility in Games, featuring every title with corresponding feature tags. The labeling feature launched in 2021 and spread to the Windows app and web store earlier this year.

Finally, Microsoft shared the video below highlighting how the Adaptive Gaming program at Craig Hospital in Englewood, CO, is empowering players with disabilities to rekindle their love of gaming.

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Elsewhere, Telegram is looking to improve channel discovery. Whenever you join a channel, you'll see a selection of similar public channels. Telegram is basing these recommendations on similarities in subscriber bases. You'll be able to view these recommendations at any time by going to a channel's profile.

You can now include a video comment or reaction with a story. You'll have the ability to resize this video message and move it around the screen. You can add a video message, a feature that takes a page out of the TikTok playbook, by holding down the camera icon in the story editor to capture a selfie clip. You can adjust the volume by holding a finger on the video track at the bottom of the screen.

Reposting someone else's story is now a cinch too. Just tap the share button on a story, then you'll have the option to repost it. Only stories that have their visibility set to public can be reposted. You can add a video comment to reposted stories too.

Elsewhere, Premium users can set up their profiles with unique color combos, everyone can apply custom wallpapers to each individual chat (Premium users can set the same wallpaper for both participants) and channel admins can customize the emoji that appear as reactions. In addition, any Telegram app can now detect a coding language in messages and highlight the syntax with proper formatting.

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