Amazon has introduced Hindi support on Alexa app that is available to millions of ndroid or iOS smartphones users in India. All one has to do is follow the simple path:
- Open the Alexa app on their device
- Now click on Settings
- Tap on Alexa on this phone
- Select ‘हिंदी’ from available languages
Mind you! Amazon Alexa is the brain that powers Amazon Echo devices. The company has added more than 60 new features since launching Hindi support to Alexa in the past year.
Asserting that India’s unique cultural and linguistic diversity has always inspired us to make Alexa more local and relevant for users in the country, Puneesh Kumar, Country Leader for Alexa, Amazon India, said, “Introducing Hindi made Alexa accessible to hundreds of millions of native Hindi speakers. We have made several improvements in Natural Language Understanding. For example, Alexa was not able to understand words like ‘dhai’ & ‘tham jaa’ in the beginning, but now she does. Similarly, we will continue to make Alexa interactions in Hindi even more seamless and conversational.”
Alexa’s Hindi support in India, Amazon had announced that customers in India can ask, “Alexa, hamari dosti par poem sunao”. Amazon has also added 6 new Alexa original songs and poems, along with 20 new stories in Hindi. For instance, say “Alexa, kuch gungunao”, “Alexa, cloud rap sunao”, “Alexa, cricket story sunao”, or “Alexa, dosti ki kahani sunao”.
With improvements in Alexa’s Speech Science, it can now understand 50 different ways to play a particular song in Hindi. The Alexa Speech Science team has used the latest advances in deep neural networks, multi-dialect training, and semi-supervised learning to reduce Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) errors by more than 40 percent since the launch of Hindi last year. Moreover, Alexa is now equipped with hundreds of new words from Hindi vocabulary and is also able to understand different ways in which customers can ask for the same information. Such initiatives led to a 30% improvement in NLU accuracy. For instance: Alexa can support a wide range of requests such as “Alexa, mere orders dikhao”, “Alexa, mera samaan ka update kya hai?”, “Alexa, meri samagri kitni door hai?”, and “Alexa, mera package kab milega?”
Furthermore, Amazon customers can enjoy interacting with Alexa as it gets hundreds of thousands of requests in Hindi and Hinglish. Mind you! Popular requests in Hindi include the convenience of using voice to play music, ask questions, read the news, set timers and alarms, check the calendar, provide sports scores, control lights at home, watch videos on Echo devices with a screen, and much more. At least one customer says “I love you” to Alexa every minute. Alexa also gets at least one marriage proposal that is “Mujse shaadi karogi?” each minute.
Besides earlier launched Hindi skills like: GaneshaSpeaks, All India Radio, RedFM, Sanjeev Kapoor Recipes, Art of Living, Sadhguru, and Amar Chitra Katha, there are over 1000 Hindi Skills. These include Audible Suno, Ramayan Katha, Devotional Stories by Hungama, Shilpa Shetty Yoga, Jungle Safari, Kabir’s Dohe, Rekhta, Hindi Jokes and so on. Alexa in Hindi can be experienced on the entire Amazon Echo range of smart speakers, Alexa built-in devices by other brands. Just say “Alexa, Hindi mei baat karo” to get started. To interact with Alexa in Hindi on your smartphone, just changed the language setting inside the Alexa app to Hindi.
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