Google has announced an update for Chrome on Android that now enables users to zoom in on text while preserving the layout of the webpage. With a new slider feature, users can adjust the text size for individual pages or apply the changes across all visited sites.
Previously, zooming in on a page within Chrome’s Android application resulted in an overall enlargement that often complicated navigation. Users can access this updated feature through the three-dot menu in the upper right corner, allowing them to choose the desired text size.
Another enhancement involves Chrome’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) tool, which now recognizes scanned PDFs on desktop. This allows users to highlight, copy, and search for text within these documents, and also enables screen reader functionality. Google previously introduced this feature in beta but has now made it accessible to all desktop users.
Google is also enhancing its Gemini integration with TalkBack, an AI-driven screen reader on Android. Users will now be able to ask follow-up questions about images, including details like the color of objects and materials used, as well as additional context about the scene.
Additionally, Google is introducing Expressive Captions, a feature that aims to deliver real-time captions for any audio content across most mobile applications. Utilizing artificial intelligence, this feature captures not only the words spoken but also the manner in which they are articulated. This allows for more nuanced captions, such as capturing the elongated pronunciation of words. This functionality will launch in English across the US, UK, Canada, and Australia for devices running Android 15 and newer.
