Google announced in September 2026 that it is rolling out five new features for Android devices aimed at improving accessibility, reducing motion sickness, and adding personalization options to Google Messages.
The most notable addition is “Motion Assist,” which places a bubble overlay on the screen that moves in response to a vehicle’s motion. The feature is designed to reduce the disconnect between what users see on their phones and what their bodies feel while riding in a moving vehicle. Users can set it to activate automatically, add it to Quick Settings, and customize the bubble’s shape, color, and transparency. Motion Assist is available to Android 17 users. Apple introduced a comparable feature called “Vehicle Motion Cues” in 2024, which uses animated dots along the display edges.
Google is also launching “Guided Vision,” built for blind and low-vision users. The feature combines the phone’s camera with Google’s Gemini AI to help with tasks such as reading small print on food labels, viewing menus in low-light settings, or identifying objects. It can also provide voice guidance if the camera is not positioned correctly. Guided Vision is coming to devices running Android 9 and newer in countries where Gemini is available.
A third update adds a “remembered items” section to Find Hub, where users can tell Gemini the location of important items — such as storing a passport in a bedroom drawer — and optionally attach a photo for easier identification later.
Google Messages is receiving two updates: an integration with Google Keep that lets users share and edit lists or notes directly within a conversation, and new chat personalization options including custom backgrounds, photos, and colors, with text bubbles automatically matching the selected theme. Apple added a similar custom background feature to its Messages app last year.
The updates reflect Google’s broader effort to make Android more useful for a wider range of users, with several features building on Gemini’s capabilities across the operating system.
Source: TechCrunch