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Android update adds scheduled texts and improves accessibility

• Whilst Android 12 will likely be released in September 2021, a first developer preview is out now. One accessibility improvement is that you will be able to make calls, set timers and play music from the lock screen, using Android’s ‘Assistant’. This will benefit those with mobility impairments and enable hands-free use.
• Android 12 will also incorporate big changes to the TalkBack screen reader (version 9.1). It adds 12 new multi-finger gestures that, for example, allow you to switch between reading just headlines, or words, or individual characters. It adds voice commands, so you can tell TalkBack “find” to locate text in the screen, or do things like increase the speech rate. Finally, it adds more customisation for its braille keyboard, including support for Arabic and Spanish. This blog post by Google explains the updates in more detail.

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