Google’s accessibility app gets support for Indian languages – Times of India

Google has rolled out a new update of its accessibility app – Look to Speak. Till now, the app was only available in English language and with the update, the company has added 17 more languages to the app – Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic), Bengali, German, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (LatAm), French, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Marathi, Portuguese, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Vietnamese. It is worth noting that out of all available languages, seven are extensively used in India.
For those who don’t know, the Look to Speak was introduced by Google last year and it is compatible with Android 9.0 and above. With the app, people simply have to look left, right or up to quickly select what they want to say from a list of phrases. It also allows users to personalise the words and phrases. The eye gaze sensitivity settings can be adjusted and the company claims that all of the data is private and never leaves the phone. After the update, more people will be able to use this accessibility app.
The tech giant is also working on an Android app called Relate that will help people suffering from speech impairments. The app aims to help people with speech impairments communicate more easily with others and interact with the Google Assistant.
As per the company, the app is made possible by over a million speech samples recorded by participants of the company’s research effort. The app is still under development and is not available to download as of now. The company is currently looking for English-speaking testers in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States to try out the app and provide feedback.
As an early tester of Project Relate, people will be asked to record a set of phrases. The app will use these phrases to automatically learn how to better understand unique speech patterns, and give access to the app’s three main features: Listen, Repeat and Assistant.