Hindi-Speaking Google Assistant Comes to More Android Phones Now

The latest feature to hit Google Assistant could enable Google to finally launch its Home speaker in India.

Google Assistant can respond to your queries in Hindi now. 

(Photo Courtesy: Google)

Google on Thursday rolled out Hindi support for its virtual assistant Google. The Assistant in Hindi will be available on Android phones 6.0+ (Marshmallow and above) and will soon come to Android 5.0 Lollipop, iPhones as well as Android Oreo (Go edition) devices.

Google Assistant is already available in Hindi in the instant-messaging platform Allo and in a special version on Reliance Jio feature phones. This development comes few months after Google Assistant was able to understand text commands in Hindi on phones with Android Lollipop and the above-mentioned features.

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.

To access the Hindi Google Assistant, set your device language to Hindi and update your Google Search app to the latest version.

Google Assistant will be available in more than 30 languages by the end of this year.

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.

Purvi Shah, Technical Programme Manager, Assistant

Some of the commands that work on Hindi. (Photo Courtesy: Google)

The emphasis to revert to a localised strategy will play a big role in the growth of voice-centric services in the country.

Expanding the reach of Hindi-speaking Assistant to entry-level smartphones, as well as JioPhone-like devices could accelerate Google’s mission to switch from text-to-voice.

This could also trigger in the demand for voice-enabled devices like Google Home, which still hasn’t made its way to the Indian market. After all, Google can clearly claim to be the first to support Hindi on a voice-supported device.

(With IANS inputs)