New Delhi: In a bid to extend the benefits of the country's growing digital economy to more people, Google India on Thursday announced a slew of new product features and partnerships at the seventh edition of Google For India event. The search engine giant announced vaccination booking, local language and voice support in Search and its digital payments platform, Google Pay.
Google announced it was piloting the first-ever Google Assistant-enabled, end-to-end vaccine booking flow in India with step-wise voice assistance in 8 Indian regional languages.
“Across people, businesses, and institutions, the outbreak of COVID-19 has catapulted India’s adoption of digital to unprecedented levels. With the fundamental drivers of digitization now in place, and millions of new users coming online, India’s goal of becoming a truly digital economy is within sight. It is now imperative that we step up our efforts in building products that are even more inclusive of India’s diverse and unique needs," Sanjay Gupta, Country Head & Vice President, Google India, said in a statement.
Also announced in India was a global first feature that will enable people to hear Search results out loud, thus, making it easier for users who prefer consuming information by listening. Aiming to expand voice-driven experiences in local languages, this feature will be available in Hinglish and five Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu and Tamil, and will be extended to other Google Search experiences in the future.
Last year, Google launched the 10 billion dollar Google for India Digitization Fund and this year's announcements aim at bridging more gaps and further broadening the inclusive base of India’s digital economy so that the advantages of this crucial transformation are accessible to everyone, the company added.
With an aim to simplify digital payments, Google Pay announced an industry first and a first for Google globally, the additional option of selecting Hinglish as a preferred language on the app. With this addition, users will be able to easily navigate the app in the language of their preference, with Hinglish as an option to mirror how a large section of Indians interact naturally.