Apple Inc (AAPL  ) is rolling out live captioning and other new accessibility features for differently-abled iOS users, according to a recent press release. While the release does not mention specific dates for any updates, the company has noted that the features will come "later this year."

"Apple embeds accessibility into every aspect of our work, and we are committed to designing the best products and services for everyone," said Sarah Herrlinger, Apple's Senior Director of Accessibility Policy and Initiatives. "We're excited to introduce these new features, which combine innovation and creativity from teams across Apple to give users more options to use our products in ways that best suit their needs and lives."

Live captioning, one of the more widely anticipated iOS features, will enable users with hearing difficulties to instantly transcribe podcasts, videos, and other content natively from their phone. Additionally, users can enable live captioning for phone and FaceTime video calls, and if calling through a Mac, they can use text to speech to reply during conversations. According to Apple, live captions are generated on a user's phone, and personal data remains "private and secure."

Apple is also debuting a "door detection" to help visually impaired users navigate using their cameras. On newer iPhone models with Apple's LiDAR scanner, users will be able to "scan" using their camera to locate an entrance, with Apple Maps integration to help users more precisely find their destination using haptic and audio feedback. Door detection can also read and transcribe signs utilizing the company's image description and on-phone machine learning.

Apple's announcement comes just recently after the company announced the end of its groundbreaking iPod product line. This decision followed a rough first-quarter earnings report that saw the company take note of the potential for increasing inflation and supply chain dysfunction to more significantly impact the company's earnings. At the very least, Apple still shows plenty of forward momentum through its software development, which could help the company stymie possible losses from slowing physical sales.