Google announced addition of more languages and multilingual support to its Google Assistant, which will be available to around 95% of the eligible Android users by the end of 2018.
Google Assistant, the virtual private assistant developed by Google, already supports eight languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese. The list will be extended to thirty. Support for Danish, Hindi, Swedish, Indonesian, Dutch, Norwegian, and Thai on Android phones and iPhones are expected to be available in the coming months, while support for more languages on more devices will be provided throughout the year.
The search engine giant will also make its virtual assistant multilingual, which means that users who converse in more than one language will be able to speak naturally to the assistant. It will initially support English, French, and German, with support for more languages expected to be added over the time.
The multilingual support will especially be useful for those who speak English or other language at work, but choose to speak their native language at home.
The new languages’ addition and multilingual support will help Google Assistant to better compete with Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, both of which support more languages. Alexa speaks English, German, and Japanese, while Siri can speak over 20 languages.
Additionally, Google Assistant will soon have two new features— Routines and Location-based reminders. Google had announced Routines in September 2017 along with the Pixel 2 phones, enabling users to get multiple things done with just a single command, like lowering the thermostat or turning off the lights.
The location-based reminders feature is already available on smartphones, and will soon be available for Home devices as well. It helps users to set reminders on the basis of locations, for example, it can remind the user to buy milk when he is at the grocery store.
Google has been working closely with mobile ecosystem since last year to bring the virtual assistant to more people around the world.
Also read: Google’s Cloud IoT Core now generally available
No exact date or month has been specified by Google for the launch of any of the new features.
