Google’s fun and quirky consumer-focused messaging client, Allo, which also packs in the uber-smart Assistant, has today bagged a much important update. This update makes conversation within the app more natural and intuitive with the introduction of a second language. And this new language is none other than our mother tongue – Hindi.
The company recognizes India as the second largest market for Allo, and it is growing at a tremendous pace since its launch in September. Thus, the Hindi language capabilities are being ported over to the overly smart Assistant and Smart Reply feature.
Using the really smart Assistant, also integrated within Android on the Google Pixel lineup, the user can receive any kind of information, accomplish right within the chat window — without leaving the conversation. Google Assistant is your constant companion in the messaging app and can be invoked by typing @google during any chat. And now it will understand and respond to your requests in Hindi.
To start using the Assistant in Hindi, you’ll just need to say ‘Talk to me in Hindi’ after typing out @google and activating the Assistant in the chat window. One can also activate the Hindi capabilities of the app from the language settings on the device as well.
The functionality of this new language is being extended to the Smart Reply feature which enables users to receive quick replies and respond to messages without having to type anything. This capability is powered by Google’s underlying machine learning algorithms, which not only understands but can also help with suggested responses to images in Hindi. For example, if your family/friend member sends you an image of smiling monkeys then the smart reply feature predicts the same as ‘मुस्कराते बंदर’ and so on.
Commenting on the launch, Amit Fulay, Group Product Manager at Google says,
The Google Assistant, in particular, is one of the most loved features in Google Allo – one in every 12 messages in group chats are messages to the Google Assistant. We are enthused by this and today’s launch enables us to extend these features to the next millions of users in a language of their choice.
The update, including new features and language capabilities, are now rolling out to Google Allo on both iOS and Android. It should become available to the users in the next few days, thus, enabling a barrier-free, natural conversation.
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