One of the biggest challenges for Indians in the web, especially the vast cohorts that have started using smartphones and data over the past couple of years has been the language challenge. this was amply demonstrated by the quick adoption of voice search in anguages, which is not only much faster than typing in anguages, even where a language keyboard was available or enabled, but also critical where written literacy is not as good as spoken literacy. That audience just got another push from Google.
The Search engine giant has today announced the launch of its voice-based virtual assistant, Google Assistant, in Hindi. The Assistant in Hindi is rolling out to Android phones 6.0+ (Marshmallow and above) and will soon be coming to Android 5.0 Lollipop, Android Oreo (Go edition), and iPhones (iOS 9.1 and above). This will ensure coverage of a majority of smartphones being used in India right now.
To access the Hindi Google Assistant, set your device language to Hindi and update your Google Search App to the latest version. With this, Indians can talk to Assistant in Hindi starting today.
For those who are unfamiliar with this, Google Assistant is Google’s own AI-based voice assistant which was first introduced on Google’s Allo app. Google Assistant can search anything on the web, perform certain tasks and even respond to various queries placed before it. It can discover content on certain apps such as YouTube or can even control the lighting from your smartphone. It can schedule events and alarms, adjust hardware settings on the user’s device, and show information from the user’s Google account and more.
How to use Google Assistant in Hindi – Video
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The Google Assistant now lets you have a conversation with Google to help you get things done in your world from telling you about your day, to finding the fastest route to work, or just setting an alarm for the next day all in Hindi. To try it out, just touch and hold the Home button or say “Ok Google” on eligible smartphones and your personal Google Assistant will be ready to help you throughout your day. Even when your hands are full, you can quickly send text messages, set reminders, or get directions with the Google Assistant.
Here are some examples of questions you can ask your Google Assistant:
- Sabse kareeb Punjabi restaurant kahaan hain?
- Dadar tak pahunchne mein kitna samay lagega?
- Cricket ka score kya hain?
You can even instruct it
- Kal subah mujhe saat baje jagaao
- Selfie kheencho
- Daddy ko SMS bhejo “5 minutes mein pahunchenge”
For an overview of all Actions already available for the Hindi Assistant, you can check out this site.
Purvi Shah, Technical Program Manager, Assistant said “The Google Assistant is truly Indian, it’s your helpful dost that speaks our language and understands the things you care about, from finding biryani recipes, to pulling up the latest cricket score, or finding directions to the nearest ATM. In order to make it even more useful to Indians over time, developers and businesses can now build Actions for the Hindi Assistant through the developer platform Actions on Google. Once an action is built, you can just say “Ok Google, talk to” and access the service or content straight through your Google Assistant.”