Alexa now in Hindi
The voice assistant by Amazon now comes equipped with a rich Hindi vocabulary and speaks in fluent Hindi/hinglish while responding to your requests
Nearly two years after Amazon introduced Alexa in India, the Us-based tech giant has now added the muchneeded support for Hindi language as well as Hinglish to its voice assistant. In what may be called a major step to make Alexa more Indian, this launch will enable hundreds of thousands of Alexa users in the country to interact with the virtual assistant to ask for music, get Bollywood or sports updates and much more in Hindi or Hinglish. Alexa is the brain that powers Amazon Echo devices. The new Hindi experience is available on all Echo family of voice-controlled smart speakers.
Since Alexa runs in the cloud, the service is always getting smarter. When Alexa launched in India in 2017, she was able to understand and pronounce names of popular places, names, songs and more in many regional languages such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Punjabi. With this update, Alexa can now understand customers speaking to her completely in Hindi or Hinglish, in multiple contexts, and varied regional accents and dialects. You can enjoy asking Alexa for diverse Hindi content such as jokes, shayaris, games, Kabir ke dohe, Panchatantra stories, Bollywood dialogues, more than 500 Alexa skills, and even spellings of words in Hindi.
“India has uniquely challenged our AI teams with its cultural and linguistic diversity. We are thrilled to bring a suite of AI advances in multilingual understanding so that customers can interact with Alexa in different regional variants of colloquial Hindi. We are also grateful to Indian customers who contributed to Hindi development through the Cleo skill,” said Rohit Prasad, Vice President and Head Scientist, Alexa AI, Amazon. “We look forward to Alexa delighting our Hindispeaking customers and working with developers in India to invent many more Hindi skills,” he added.
To get started with Hindi, customers can just ask, “Alexa, help me set up Hindi.” Existing Echo customers in India can change their device language to Hindi via the language options inside the device settings on the Alexa app. Echo Show users can access the settings section to change language by swiping down from the top of the screen.
“We are a customer-first company than a technology-first company. In India pronunciation, diction and accents in Hindi are different across the country even if the language being spoken is the same,” said Puneesh Kumar, Country Manager for Alexa Experiences and Devices, Amazon India. “Conversations in Hinglish are common. With this launch, you will notice that Alexa has become more local. Alexa will not only understand and respond in Hindi or Hinglish but, is also armed with a
lot of knowledge about topics that interest users in the country ranging from local information to music, and from Bollywood to cricket,” he added.
Coming soon, users can speak to Alexa in Hindi and English without changing the language setting back and forth. For example, if a customer asks for the weather in Hindi, Alexa will reply in Hindi, e.x. “Alexa, aaj mausam kaisa hai?” and when they ask for information in English, Alexa will understand and respond in English e.x. “Alexa, tell me about Chandrayaan-2”. This feature is specially built for Indian households where users speak both Hindi and English.
Make your day with some of the interesting features that Alexa has to offer:
Play Music: Alexa offers a seamless, hands-free music experience with premier music services including Amazon Prime Music, Gaana, Hungama, Jiosaavn, Tunein, and more. Listening to music across a wide catalogue of Hindi, English and multiple Indian regional language songs with Alexa is as simple as saying “Alexa, Bollywood ke latest gaane sunao” or “Alexa, Kishore Kumar ke gaane sunaiye”. If you are in the mood to exercise, say “Alexa, workout music chalao”. Control volume and playback for millions of songs by saying “Alexa, volume badhao” or “Alexa, agla gaana lagao”. If you aren’t sure who an artist is, just say “Alexa, yeh kaunsa gaana hai?” Alexa will also offer over 100 relaxation sounds in Hindi. To get started, say “Alexa, mujhe aaraam karna hai”
Ask Questions: Ask Alexa all kinds of questions, including those about cricket, Bollywood, famous people and places, festivals, calculations, sports, stocks, spelling and much more in Hindi. For example, “Alexa, Diwali kab hai”, “Alexa, 64 ka cube root kya hai”, “Alexa, Spain ka capital kya hai?” and “Alexa, sone ka bhaav batao”. Alexa is now more Indian. Her fun personality can entertain everyone in the family. You can ask Alexa for a joke by saying “Alexa, chutkula sunao”. You can also say “Alexa, koi filmy dialogue sunao”, “Alexa seeti bajao”, “Alexa taali bajao”, “Alexa, ek kahani sunao”, or “Alexa, tum kaun ho”. For more enterainment, ask Alexa to play fun games by saying, “Alexa, chalo ek game khele”.
Control your Smart Home: Use Echo smart speakers to control the TV from the couch when watching a movie, or switch off the tubelight when getting in bed—all using just your voice. You can say “Alexa, light band kar do” or “Alexa, Geyser on karo” or “Alexa, TV mute karo”. Alexa works with devices such as smart lights and plugs from brands including Wipro, Philips Hue, SYSKA LED, Xiaomi, Tp-link, and more. You can also control your compatible security cameras, fans, ACS and air purifiers from brands such as D-link, Voltas, Orient, LG, Xiaomi and more.
Set Reminders, Alarms and Timers: Set up multiple reminders, alarms and timers with your voice, including setting repeating alarms. Just say “Alexa, phone bill bharne ka reminder lagao”, “Alexa, subah saat baje ka alarm set karo”, or “Alexa, timer mei kitne minute baki hai?”
Create and Manage Lists: Alexa can help you stay organised by creating and managing your To-do and Shopping lists. Just say “Alexa, meri shopping list mein jeera add kar do”, “Alexa, meri to-do list mein doctor’s appointment daal do”, or “Alexa, meri shopping list mein kya hai”.
Hear the Latest News and Cricket Updates: Alexa can read the news and give customised updates based on your news preferences. You can choose your favorite outlets to provide the news or sports results, including Dainik Jagran, Aaj Tak, NDTV, and Bollywood Hungama. Just say “Alexa, kya chal raha hai?”, “Alexa, filmy khabrein sunao”, “Alexa, cricket score batao”, or “Alexa, India ka agala match kab hai?”
Get the Weather: Ask Alexa about local, national and international weather forecasts. For example: “Alexa, aaj mausam kaisa hai?”, “Alexa, kya kal baarish hogi?”, “Alexa, Mumbai ka weather update batao?”, or “Alexa, is weekend Bangalore mein mausam kaisa rahega?”
Play with Alexa: Alexa has exciting Hindi skills for kids, from playing games to listening to Hindi rhymes and stories. Some of India’s most popular characters are now available through Alexa Skills including Vir The Robot Boy, Chacha Chaudhary, Kids TV, Koo Koo TV, Jugnu Kids and the evergreen Shambu and Suppandi from Amar Chitra Katha. Kids can get started by saying “Alexa, Chuchu TV shuru karo”, or “Alexa, sher ki aawaaz sunao”.
Third Party Skills: Thousands of developers have already started building Alexa skills with a Hindi flavour. Customers can choose from over 500 Alexa skills in Hindi offered by more than 30 brands including Ola, Chuchu TV, Ganeshaspeaks, All India Radio, REDFM, Sanjeev Kapoor Recipes, Pearsons, Career Launcher, Art of Living, Sadhguru, VR Devotee, Shemaroo, Hungama, Hubhopper, Aastha TV and Amar Chitra Katha. These skills range from devotional music, horoscope, kids’ education and games, recipes, and more. You can ask, “Alexa, Hindi Shayari shuru karo”, “Alexa, Panchtantra ki kahaniyan shuru karo”, “Alexa, Kabir ke dohe sunao” or “Alexa, tumhare paas kya skills hai?” to know more about skills. ■