Google has finally added support for Hindi to the Google Assistant and is slowly rolling out the change to all Android phones running Marshmallow and above. It’s also bringing the new language to Lollipop and iPhone devices at a later date.
The Google Assistant has indirectly been supporting Hindi in a couple of different ways. It can speak Hindi in Google’s Allo app. The company even launched a special version of the AI for the Reliance JioPhone. It can now directly hold conversations in Hindi with users.
To get started, people will have to set their phone’s language to Hindi, make sure they have the latest version of the Google Search app, and then press down on the Home button or say “Ok Google” out loud. The Assistant should spring forth to answer any queries, send a text message, get directions, or set reminders or alarms.
For instance, individuals with eligible devices can say “Sabse kareeb Punjabi restaurant kahaan hain?”, “Kal subah mujhe saat baje jagaao”, “Selfie kheencho”, “Cricket ka score kya hain?”, and “Dadar tak pahunchne mein kitna samay lagega?” to the Google Assistant. They can even send an SMS by saying “Daddy ko SMS bhejo “5 minutes mein pahunchenge””.
Google says the digital assistant gets better over time by learning a person’s likes and dislikes. It’s powered by machine learning which in itself is built on computer vision, natural language understanding, and understanding user context. This is what allows it to comprehend follow-up questions and multi-step tasks.
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Developers and businesses can build Actions for the Hindi Assistant via Actions on Google, its developer platform. This will allow users to say “Ok Google, talk to…” in order to access a particular third-party service or app.