Google is trying to make the Google Assistant more accessible to the consumers in India. The latest update (maybe a server-side change, we’re not sure) has brought the Hindi language support to the Assistant in India. That said, you can now interact with your smartphone in India with just a tap. However, it is said that only a few phones have received this functionality at the moment, but we’re expecting a broader rollout to happen in the coming days.
Google Assistant is horribly confusing when it comes to languages. The search giant already added support for the Hindi language in the Google Allo application, but the standard Assistant on your smartphone is receiving the functionality now.
If you own an Android smartphone running Android 5.0 Lollipop and above, make sure that you’ve set up your phone’s language to English (India). If not, do that by heading over to Settings>Languages & input>Language> Add a language>English>and select India, which will probably enable the Hindi language support for Assistant, subjected that if you’re living in India.
And speaking in Hindi with Assistant is Fun. Like you issue commands in English, you can now issue them in Hindi. For instance, you can ask Google about the weather as ‘Hyderabad Ka Mausam Kaisa Hai’, and it replies you back in Hindi itself for the most part, but in some instances, it replied me back in English.
The irony, however, is that when you type the same Hindi command instead of voice-over, the Assistant failed to answer, although that too in some instances too. Chances are that Google is still testing the feature and the final version would take some time to roll out to the public.
Google is yet to make an official announcement on the same, which is expected to happen in the coming weeks. Google already confirmed the arrival of Google Assistant for JioPhone and this feature would be helpful for many users out there in the rural areas.
Update: There’s an update about the availability of Google Assistant in Hindi in India. “The Google Assistant on Android phones and iPhones is currently available in English in India, built for English input but supporting a few selected Hindi queries. While we’ve launched the Hindi Google Assistant on Allo, it’s not available on phones yet. We are looking to bring the Assistant experience to more Indian languages over time,” said a spokesperson of Google. The company may roll out the Hindi language feature in the coming days.
