Google brings India-centric features on Android

Voice Search updates to the Google app has been optimised for English in the Indian accent and in Hindi.

Google at its recent Google House event in Bengaluru showcased innovations in its Android apps to better the experience for Indian users. The event featured demonstrations of Google’s Search, Maps, Photos, Translate and YouTube apps.

“Indians are coming online from mobile devices at an incredibly rapid rate — six to seven million new mobile internet users every month,” said Sandeep Menon, Google Country Marketing Director.

To begin with Google has improved voice recognition. Voice Search updates to the Google app has been optimised for English in the Indian accent and in Hindi. Some of the latest Google Now updates aims to work like a personal assistant.

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Google introduced an instant translation feature in Google Translate. Recently launched in Hindi, instant translate translates printed text or street signs by opening the app and pointing the camera at the text.

The new Google Photos app which automatically backs up photos and videos across all the devices. “With people around the world uploading 1.8 billion photos every day, taking 93 million selfies and more photos being taken every two minutes than the whole of humanity took in the 1800s, it’s just as well that Google Photo offers unlimited, free storage,” said a statement.

On the Search front, the app now delivers faster and lighter search results for people accessing the web from a mobile device with a slow connection 2G. Google also showcased recent offline features, like the ability to save Maps or YouTube Offline, which allow users to watch videos without data connection.