14 DAY TRIAL // Good news for Indians who prefer to take advantage of Google Voice Search instead of other similar services, as the company has just announced that it now accepts English voice search with Indian accent.
Obviously, the service is not available for any Indian language in particular, but given the fact that a high percentage of Indians speak English, this is a very welcomed feature.
Keep in mind that the new feature aimed at Indian users is available on both Android and iOS platforms, as well as desktop computers (via Chrome browser), but it has some requirements. For example, Voice Search is only available on Android devices powered by version 2.3 and higher, fonerarena reports.
During a press event held in New Delhi, the search giant unveiled that it had worked with more than 700 volunteers in India in order to gather all the data needed for the development of the new feature.
“We collected spoken utterances to create the specific language models which power English voice search in the Indian accent. Our volunteers are asked to read popular search queries in a variety of acoustic conditions such as in restaurants, out on busy streets, and inside cars, to best reflect real life and the role Search has in helping connect users with relevant information they need to go about their day.”
But this is not the only improvement aimed at Indian users. According to Google, lots of under the hood enhancement have been made as well in order to offer better Knowledge Graph results for India.
“From asking Google where you can watch the latest movie to finding out cricket scores at the touch of a button, Google is there to help you get the answers you need. We’re delighted to showcase the improvements we’ve made to Search for Indian users today.
These features demonstrate Google’s commitment to India and to continually improving Indian users’ search experience,” said Sandeep Menon, head of marketing, Google India.
New Voice Search users in India who would like to access the service now with support for Indian accents, can do so by heading to Settings from the Google Search application and selecting Voice / Language.
You will then need to choose English / English (India). Android users who wish to set up Google voice typing in their smartphones can go to Settings / Language and Input and choose Google voice typing. Have you tried the new Google Voice Search with support for Indian accents? How do you like it?