Google Allo gets Hindi language support

Google just opened its AI-driven app Allo to hundreds of millions of new users.

Google said Monday Allo is getting support for Hindi, one of India’s widest spoken languages. The assistant, which a user can trigger using the keyword "@google", now understands as well as responds in Hindi language.

The company first demoed the feature at its Google for India event in September, with company’s executives emphasising their continued efforts to tailor their services for the Indian market.

"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,” Amit Fulay, Group Product Manager, Google said in a press statement.

Those who wish to use Allo in Hindi need to download the app and then say "Talk to me in Hindi" using the voice command. Alternatively, one can also adjust the language setting on your device to change Allo's default language.

With over 422 people understanding Hindi in India, as of 2011, it is the most spoken language in the country, compared to English which only 10-20 percent of the population can understand.

Silicon Valley companies are quickly realising that if they want to appeal to the largely untapped Indian market, they need to mould their services for them.

Facebook, for instance, offers its social networking platform in Hindi as well as several other local languages. Amazon last week enabled ebooks support in five local Indian languages.

The Indian government has also actively pushed companies to not neglect non-English speaking people. In late October, for instance, the ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) gave its nod for a proposal that requires all phone companies to support at least one additional language — in addition to English and Hindi.