Google is putting in all its efforts to expand the linguistic capabilities of its virtual assistant which power the new messaging app, Allo with the news that it now familiar to converse in Hindi and Brazilian Portuguese.
As promised by Google, Allo is all set to receive a new update in India. Google has started to roll out the Hindi Assistant to its latest instant messaging app, Allo in the Indian sub-continent. Earlier in this September at its Make for India event, Google had promised that Allo will be receiving the Hindi Assistant sometime later in this year.
Apart from adding support to the Hindi and Brazilian Portuguese languages on Google Assistant, Allo will now use the help of machine learning to include the “Smart Reply” feature in Hindi and Brazilian Portuguese languages as well. The new feature has been introduced to focus on bringing more of the non-English speakers online.
Google Assistant in New Languages
By using Google Allo, the users will be able to get help from their Assistant without having to leave their conversation. So it is now very easy for people to share all the sports scores, travel plans, or recipes, with their friend right there in their chats. People have been seeking help from their Assistant every day. According to Google, 1 in every 12 messages on group chats is the messages that are sent to the Google Assistant.
While chatting on Allo, the users can start using the Assistant in Hindi and in Brazilian Portuguese by just spelling out ‘Talk to me in Portuguese’ or ‘Talk to me in Hindi’. They can adjust the language settings on their devices according to their preferences. So from now on, the users will just have to add @google to their chats and the Assistant will be ready to help.
Smart Reply in Different Languages
The Smart Reply feature which uses machine learning to send quick responses in English all this time while chatting has been very helpful to most of the users. More than half of the people who use Allo every day use the Smart Reply feature. With an idea to bring the linguistic capabilities of Allo to non-English speaking people around the world, Google has taken it ahead by a small step by adding support for Smart Reply in Hindi and in Brazilian Portuguese languages. So, from now on the users can respond to messages in their own respective languages.
Smart Reply will be able to recognize the language in which the user is chatting in and will start suggesting responses in that very language. So if the user is chatting in English, the app will continue to show responses in English. But if the user is chatting in Hindi or in Brazilian Portuguese, the suggestions will be shown in that language.
Sticker Packs with a Brazilian Edge
Lastly, Google has also added new local stickers in Google Allo for Brazil. Daniel Semanas, the Illustrator has covered a sticker depicting a typical day at the beach with “Mari by the Sea,” whereas Florence Dagostini had brought the slang words to life using everyday objects in “There, I Said It.” There are also other additional stickers which focus on Brazilian food, city life, and gamer culture.
Google will be rolling out all these new features in Brazilian Portuguese and Hindi for Google Allo on both the Android and iOS platforms, and they will be made available to all the other platforms also soon in the next few days. As of now, Google Assistant and Smart Reply is available in just English, Hinglish, Hindi, Brazilian Portuguese, and German, but the search giant is looking forward to bringing it more languages over a period of time.