Google just added 30 languages to its voice-to-text feature in Gboard
Google announced today its adding 30 new languages to voice typing in its popular keyboard app, Gboard.
Now, people who speak Gujarati (India) or Nepali (Nepal) can simply talk directly to their phone rather than having to type as long as Gboard is set as the phone's default keyboard.
The new update will bring the total number of supported languages in Gboard up to 119 varieties and the additions primarily focus on emerging markets like places in India and Africa.
But that's not all. Following the update, people in the U.S who use Gboard will also be able to write their favorite emojis by just describing them out loud. For example, if you say something like "winky face emoji" to the app, it will actually type out the winking emoji for you.
Obviously, though, the big news here is the dozens of new languages that have been added to the app that will open up talk-to-text functions for more than a billion people throughout the world.
Google is adamant about offering more languages for dictation services because it is three times faster than typing and has gone to great lengths to make sure the feature works in a variety of cultures.
The update includes a 10th century language called Georgian, Africa's Swahili and Amharic, and a number of Indian languages. It's all in an effort to make the internet more inclusive. The full list of new languages supported by GBoard can be found here.
Google worked with native speakers to train machine learning models so real people have success with the keyboard.
The update is available in Cloud Speech API starting today and will soon be available in more Google apps, including Translate. Install Gboard from the Play Store, choose your language in Settings, and tap the microphone to start dictation.
The other part of the update is emoji dictation, although it's only available for English speakers in the U.S. Just turn on dictation and say "heart eyes emoji" or whatever you want to use, and watch it show up in your messages.
Gboard's other recent updates to include YouTube, Google Maps, and emoji search have made it even more user friendly. So, give it a try if you haven't yet. And for the already loyal Gboard users, make sure your keyboard is updated and take advantage of the new features.
Molly is a recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While there, she studied life sciences communication and conservation biology. Molly has worked in multiple communications positions at UW and recently acted as a science intern at Business Insider in NYC. She is a lover of all things science and tech related, and is always ready to take on a new challenge. When Molly isn't writing, she fills her time training for IRONMAN events, acting as the unofficial #1 Wisconsin athletics fan, and trying as many new foods as her budget will allow.
