Google for India 2019 Highlights

9 Major Announcements From

Google's India Event

Google hosted the fifth edition of its annual Google for India event in India. Here are all the major announcements from the event. Google has announced a slew of updates for Assistant, Pay as well as Lens at its Google for India 2019 event. A new Google Research India AI lab, which is based in Bengaluru has also been announced. It will be led by Dr. Manish Gupta.

HIGHLIGHTS

• New features for Google Pay

• Tokenized cards coming to Pay

• Spot feature for Google Pay launched

• New Jobs feature coming to Pay

• Improved Google Assistant 

• Language decoupling for Google Assistant
• Food delivery coming to Google Assistant
• Vodafone-Idea phone line with Google Assistant

• Free public Wi-Fi:

• Google Research India, an AI lab based in Bangalore

• Discover to be available on the home screen of Google App, Go, and Chrome

• Google Lens getting support for Tamil, Telugu, and Marathi for translation

• Bolo app gets support for new languages, content from Katha Kids, Chotta Bheem

• The event also saw the company announcing new products and initiatives that are designed specifically for the Indian users. From bringing support for various Indic languages onto a number of platforms such as Search, Lens, and Bolo to announcing a new artificial intelligence (AI) based lab in India, Google for India event 2019 saw the company going all 'desi' and introducing features that cater to the masses.

What happened last year?

In its fourth annual Google for India meet in 2018, the US-based tech major announced its three main goals for the country by making the internet work for more Indians, Google products more relevant to Indians and taking the best of India to the rest of the world. It was also the day when Android Oreo (Go edition) was made available to the Android developers as well as partners (OEMs), and mobile carriers. Google for India event also saw the official version of the Files Go app is launched on the Google Play store which is focused to free up space, find files faster, and share files offline with people around.

Google Pay

Talking about its payments app, Google Pay, informed that the active users on the Google Pay platform have reached 67 million that made a total transaction of $110 billion last year.

Google will be introducing tokenized payments for offline and online payments on the Google Pay app. By using the Tokenized payment feature you will be able to make online and offline payments on the Google Payments App without actually sharing your card details with the merchant, instead, a random token number will be generated which can be used to make the payment. The Token number will expire as soon as the payment is completed. This functionality will be available for Visa cards by HDFC, SBI, Axis, Kotak, and Standard Chartered banks, in the coming weeks and it would extend the support to cover Mastercard and Rupay cards in the coming months.

Google also introduced a Job Spot which would enable job-seekers to look for entry-level jobs, make a CV and interact with potential employers all within Google Pay. At the start, Google will be working with a few local companies from Delhi NCR and will expand soon.

The new Google Pay Bussiness App makes registration on the Google Pay App easier for merchants. Now they can call Google and get themselves verified through e-KYC. The new Spot feature on the Google Pay App will let local merchants create branded commercial experience for the customers. Google Pay for Business would allow small merchants and storefronts to enable digital payments without the hassle of the time-consuming verification process.

Google Research India

Language decoupling in Google Assistant: 

Google Assistant, available on smartphones, computers, and speakers, supports a total of nine Indian languages. Users can now directly talk to their Google Assitant in Hindi and other local languages. Google has started rolling out this feature on all Android, Android Go, and KaiOs devices.

Interpreter mode in Google Assistant: 

New Interpreter Mode on Google Assistant will act as a real-time translator between two individuals who can't communicate in a common language. To launch the interpreter mode, all users need to say is - "OK Google, help me speak in Hindi". This feature will be available on Android and Android Go phones in India in the coming months.

Also, Google Assistant has integrated third-party apps like Ola Cabs, HealthifyMe, Faasos, FreshMenu and more for quick app-based actions.

Vodafone-Idea Phone Line:

Google has partnered with Vodafone and Idea to introduced a new phone line number that will allow users to access Google Assistant even without any active internet connection. Vodafone users who are still using 2G networks can now call a toll-free number - 000-800-9191-000 - to ask their queries to Google, which would then answer them actively. Users can access all the features that Google Assistant provides online, though this helpline number provided. Google Assitant will also be able to provide.

Free public Wi-Fi:

In the previous year, Google added more than 400 free WiFi in different stations across the country. Google is taking its Station program a step further and expanding its reach to other parts of the country.

Google announced that it would expand this program of providing free public Wi-Fi to people living in areas without internet connectivity. The company today announced a partnership with BSNL as a part of which it would provide high-speed public WiFi to villages in Gujarat, Bihar, and Maharashtra that are yet to get Wi-Fi connectivity.

Google AI Lab

Google opens an AI research lab in Bengaluru to advance computer science research in India that would focus on the advancement of Computer Science research in India especially on Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Languages, Speech, Systems, and other related areas. and applying this research to solve big problems related to healthcare, education, and agriculture. 

The lab would be led by noted Indian scientists and ACM fellow Dr. Manish Gupta. He will be aided by Prof Milind Tambe, who will join the Google Research India as the director for AI for Social Good research. 

The lab will also focus on making apps and services that will focus on helping millions of people in the country.

Discover gets 7 new languages:

Google introduced support for seven new Indian languages in the Discover section of its Google app which includes Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam. Google will introduce support for Oriya, Urdu, Punjabi to Search by the end of the year.

Google also introduced a refreshed design for Google Search in India that will highlight queries in local languages. Users can look for content in local languages by tapping on the chip that appears below the search bar.

Lens gets smarter and better:

Google introduced a number of new features on Google Lens.

• users will translate information road signs or a poster or a menu by taking a photo, tapping on the translate button and selecting their preferred language.

• With Google Lens, users can now tap on a word and launch Search directly to look for the details pertaining to the word.

• Google Lens is getting support for Tamil, Telugu, and Marathi.

Bolo gets new languages:

Earlier this year Google launched the Bolo app in Hindi and in English. Now, Google has added support for five Indian languages in the Bolo app which includes Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. Google has also partnered with Chotta Bheem and Katha Kids to expand the catalog of stories from around 40 to over 500 stories.