Google introduced Hindi support for Google Allo over a year back and Google Assistant for JioPhone that was introduced a few months back comes with support for both English and Hindi. Earlier this year Google silently introduced Hindi support in Google Assistant on Android smartphones in India for few selected Hindi queries. Today it has officially rolled out the feature for all users on Android phones 6.0+ (Marshmallow and above) and it will soon be available to Android 5.0 Lollipop, iPhones as well as Android Oreo (Go edition) devices.
It is powered by machine learning and is built on search, natural language understanding, computer vision, and understanding user context to understand intent behind words to handle follow-up questions and complex, multi-step tasks.
“And it’ll get better over time — with your permission, it can learn your preferences, your likes and your dislikes — all done in a private, secure way that puts you in control,” says Google.
Developers and businesses can also 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.
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”
All Actions available for the Hindi Assistant are available on assistant.google.com.
Regarding the new feature, 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.