Google focuses on Indic languages with easy language switch in Maps, bilingual Search toggles, and more

India is the land of a hundred languages, a place where the dialect changes every 100kms. In a tech world dominated by English, these local languages and dialects find themselves unable to provide access to meaningful experiences on the Internet. At the Google L10n virtual event today, Google is making it easier for multilingual users in India to have enriching experiences in India with easy language toggles for Google Search, better bilingual result surfacing in Google Search, easy language switch in Google Maps, homework help in Hindi through Google Lens, and a multilingual AI model called MuRIL to make it easier for computers to understand diverse human language.

Background

Before getting to the announcements, here is some background to explain the context to our international audience. A big chunk of India is bilingual and multilingual, with English being the first language of only 0.02% of India’s vast population of over 1.2 billion people. Only 10.6% of the total population can speak English. In contrast, 43.63% of the population speak Hindi as their first language, while 57.1% can speak Hindi overall (though this is divided into different sub-dialects). Other languages follow, but in smaller percentages — Bengali, Marathi, and Telugu in 8.9%, 8.2%, and 7.8% respectively. The long and short of it is that focusing technology around English as the only access medium gatekeeps the tech away from a very large number of users who would otherwise find the tech absolutely useful — and perhaps need it even more than those than already have access to the tech in other ways.

As I noted in my Google Nest Audio review, even something like a smart speaker offers less use in a multilingual setup as it would in an English-speaking household. Commands in mixed languages are not recognized that well (like a primarily English command with some Hindi words), and setting up bilingual languages is still limited to some combinations (Hindi + Urdu, or any two Indic languages are not a valid combination, but Hindi + English is). The situation is better than what it was some short years ago, but there’s still a fair way to go for improvements.

And Google knows this, forming the base for today’s announcements at the L10n event (a playful abbreviation for Localization, with 10 letters between L and n).

Announcements at Google L10n Event 2020

Easy toggling between English and Indian language results in Google Search

Google has been offering the ability to quickly swap between results in English and Hindi through a chip/tab in Google Search, in Indian states with a significant Hindi-speaking population. This chip bumped up the increase in Hindi queries by 10x in India.

The same is now being expanded to more Indic languages. Google Search will now offer the ability to toggle results between English and Tamil/Telugu/Bangla/Marathi as well.

Better Bilingual result surfacing in Google Search

Users in India, myself included, prefer to type things in English even if the results are expected in a local language. In fact, transliteration Hindi into English has given rise to Hinglish, which is Hindi written with the English alphabet.

Google Search is coming to the rescue for such bilinguals for their Search queries. Over the next month, Search will begin showing relevant content in supported Indian languages when appropriate, even if the query has been transliterated into English, giving rise to bilingual search results across more languages in addition to English as the primary. Supported Indian languages for the secondary are Hindi, Bangla, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu.

Easy language switch in Google Maps

Google Assistant and Discover have the ability to switch to a different language than the system, allowing users to use these tools in their specific preference. More than 50% of the content in Google Discover is viewed in Indian languages in the country, and a third of Google Assistant users are using it in an Indian language.

The ability to change languages within the app is now being extended to Google Maps. Users can now simply open the app, go to Settings, and tap “App Language” to select from up to nine languages. This will make it easier for users to search for places, get directions, and navigate around in their preferred language for this task.

Homework help in Hindi through Google Lens

Google Lens already allows you to solve math problems to help with your kid’s homework. You can snap a photo of a math problem, and be shown a step-by-step guide on how to solve it. But this guide has been primarily displayed in English.

Google is now introducing Hindi solutions for homework help in Google Lens.

MuRIL — the multilingual AI model to help computer systems understand Indian languages at scale

A lot of the conversation around AI and machine learning centers around understanding humans and human language. But when languages take a hundred forms, this conversation balloons into a formidable task, more so than it already was. This is where MuRIL comes in.

Short for Multilingual Represtantions for Indian Languages, MuRIL is a multilingual model that scales across languages. Among other benefits, it also provides support for transliterated text such as when writing Hindi using the Roman script. MuRIL is also good at determining the sentiment of transliterated sentences. MuRIL supports 16 Indian languages as well as English, giving it the highest coverage for Indian languages among any other publicly available model of its kind.

MuRIL has been made open-source and is available for download from the TensorFlow Hub for free.

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It’s great to see companies steer conversations towards wider acceptance of diverse languages. We hope efforts continue on this end for other languages and other regions as well.

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Redmi 9 Power with 6000mAh battery, Snapdragon 662, MIUI 12 launches in India

The global pandemic disrupted how most smartphone brands operate. Xiaomi’s spin-off brand Redmi, which has been launching two Redmi Note generations per year since 2018, could not push past launching the 9th series. While the Redmi Note 9 and the Redmi Note 9 Pro/Pro Max were launched in India and parts of Europe earlier this year, they were not launched in China. Last month, when Xiaomi did finally launch the Redmi Note 9 series in China, these devices turned out to be entirely new SKUs. Out of these new devices, the Redmi Note 9 4G (China) (codenamed lime) is now making its way to India where it will be called the Redmi 9 Power (limein). The Redmi 9 Power gets its name from the large 6,000mAh battery that powers the device.

The Redmi 9 Power is meant for the budget segment, so Xiaomi is staying away from using a hole-punch display. It rocks a standard waterdrop notch display measuring 6.53-inches. The display has a resolution of Full HD+, a refresh rate of 60Hz, and is protected under a layer of Gorilla Glass 3.

The Redmi 9 Power is fairly identical to POCO’s latest budget device — POCO M3 (read our POCO M3 hands-on review). It runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 662 chipset and comes with up to 128GB of UFS storage. Unlike the Chinese version that comes with up to 8GB of RAM, the Redmi 9 Power comes with only 4GB RAM.

The only major difference is in terms of the rear cameras; the Redmi 9 Power features a quad camera setup including a 48MP primary camera with a Samsung GM2 sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2MP depth sensor, a 2MP macro camera. On the front, the smartphone features an 8MP camera.

Although it is intended for the budget segment, the Redmi 9 Power features a stereo speaker setup for surrounding audio. The 6000mAh battery is complemented by 18W fast charging but you get a 22.5W charger in the box so you can use it with other devices as well. The smartphone is available in four different colors — black, orange, green, and blue.

In terms of software, the Redmi 9 Power comes with MIUI 12 based on Android 10.

Price & Availability

The different variants of the Redmi 9 Power are priced as follows:

• 4GB + 64GB – ₹10,999
• 4GB+ 128GB – ₹11,999

The smartphone will be available in India starting December 23rd on Amazon India, Mi.com, and Mi Home retail stores.

Redmi 9 Power Specifications

Specification	Redmi 9 Power
Build	Gorilla Glass 3 on the front
Dimensions & Weight	162.3 x 77.28 x 9.6 mm 198g
Display	6.53-inch FHD+ LCD 60Hz refresh rate Waterdrop notch
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 662
RAM & Storage	4GB + 64GB UFS 2.1 4GB + 128GB UFS 2.2
Battery & Charging	6,000 mAh 18W fast charging 22.5W fast charger included in the box
Security	Side-mounted fingerprint scanner
Rear Camera(s)	Primary: 48MP, 4-in-1 pixel binning, f/1.79 Secondary: 8MP Ultra-wide angle, f/2.2, 120° FoV Tertiary: 2MP, depth, f/2.4 Video: 1080p @ 30fps
Front Camera(s)	8MP, f/2.0
Port(s)	USB-C, headphone jack
Audio	Dual speakers
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 4.2 GNSS: GPS GLONASS BeiDou Galileo NavIC Bands: GSM: B2, 3, 5, 8 CDMA: BC0 WCDMA: B1, 5, 8 TD-SCDMA: B34, 39 TDD-LTE: B34, 38, 39, 40, 41 FDD-LTE: B1, 3, 5, 8
Software	MIUI 12 based on Android 10
Other Features	IR Blaster

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Look for Seamless Setup support on your next Google Assistant smart home gadget

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of setting up a cheap Chinese smart bulb, you’d know that the setup process can be a bit of a hassle. You first have to download an app from the smart bulb’s manufacturer, create an account on that app, connect the smart bulb to the app, and then finally connect your account to Google Home to start using the smart bulb with the Google Assistant. And while that may sound simple enough, the process isn’t really as seamless as it may seem.

To ensure that users have a better experience setting up their smart devices, Google started working with some smart home gadget makers last year to simplify the setup process. This resulted in Seamless Setup, a new setup process for smart home gadgets that allows you to set up compatible devices from start to finish right in the Google Home app. The C by GE smart lights were the first smart home devices to feature support for the new Seamless Setup process, and Google has since published a support page that lists devices that support Seamless Setup in Google Home (first spotted by Android Police).

With the recent launch of the Yeelight Smart LED Bulb M2, Google finally published a YouTube video that advertises Seamless Setup. As you can see in the video, smart home devices that support Seamless Setup in the Google Home app feature a special badge indicating as such. This is something that you should be on the lookout for if you want to avoid the cumbersome setup process that I talked about earlier. Philips, for instance, does a great job of advertising Seamless Setup support on its line of Hue-branded smart home lights. Alternatively, you can check out the aforementioned support page that lists all the Seamless Setup supported devices.

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Discord is rolling out screen sharing on mobile devices

Update 1 (12/16/2020 @ 07:58 PM ET): Discord is rolling out screen sharing to all users on mobile devices this week. Click here for more information. The article as published on November 10, 2020, is preserved below.

In September this year, we learned that Discord was planning to bring its screen sharing feature to Android users. At the time, we had spotted new strings highlighting the feature in a Canary release of Discord’s desktop client. The strings revealed that the feature would allow users to share their Android device’s screen with friends. However, the feature was in an early stage of development back then, and we had no information regarding its UI or release timeline. Now, the feature is starting to be tested in Discord for Android version 48.2 or higher, and here’s what it looks like.

As you can see in the attached video (h/t XDA Senior Member Some_Random_Username), the screen sharing feature appears as a new icon in the bottom toolbar on Discord’s voice calling interface. Tapping on the icon brings up a pop-up that states: “Mobile Screen Share is here! Watch videos, stream gameplay, or browse other apps together by sharing your screen with your friends.” To start screen sharing, you can then tap on the “Try it out!” button in the pop-up, which brings up a confirmation pop-up dialog.

The confirmation dialog serves as an alert and lets you know that you may accidentally expose sensitive information while sharing your device’s screen. This is a great addition as it clearly lays down the risks and, in effect, ensures that you’re careful while using the feature. You can then start sharing your screen by tapping on the “Start Now” button in the confirmation dialog.

The screen sharing UI includes a big “Stop sharing” button right in the center and a swipe up menu at the bottom with some additional options. These include a button to switch between video and voice calls, another button to stop screen sharing, one to mute/unmute the microphone, and a fourth button to end the call. You can also find the option to change the audio output for screen sharing underneath these four buttons.

Once you start sharing your screen, you’ll be able to switch to a different app and let your friends see what’s on your screen. This makes the feature a great addition for both troubleshooting scenarios and streaming a game on the platform.

Although Discord still hasn’t revealed a release timeline, the feature is now in testing for users of the Discord Testers server running version 48.2 or higher of the Android app. It hopefully shouldn’t be long before the feature makes its way to the beta and then stable release.

Discord - Talk, Video Chat & Hang Out with Friends (Free⁺, Google Play) →

Update 1: General Availability

According to The Verge, Discord is rolling out screen sharing in the mobile app this week. 20 percent of users will see the feature by today, while the remaining 80 percent of users will have the feature enabled by tomorrow. That’s an incredibly rapid release schedule, but the feature has been in testing with mobile users for over a month now.

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Google Stadia finally makes its way to iOS via web app

Google Stadia subscribers can finally use the service on their iPhone or iPad — although the experience isn’t quite as seamless as it is on Android. That’s because due to Apple’s App Store restrictions, users are required to go through Safari, not a dedicated app.

Apple’s App Store has strict restrictions on cloud gaming apps, preventing companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon from releasing apps for these services on iOS. That means the service can only run in Safari or by adding a home screen shortcut, which essentially turns the service into a progressive web app.

Google said that Stadia on iOS is still in development, but it’s a start. “Some Stadia features may not be available on iOS, or may not function properly.”

Many see Apple’s restrictions as user hostile and anti-competitive, especially when Apple offers its own game service for mobile titles. The difference is Apple lets users download these games rather than stream them from the cloud. It’s unfortunate, and there’s no indication Apple will ever compromise and let services like Stadia, xCloud, or Luna live in the App Store.

The arrival of Stadia on iOS through Safari comes at a time when Google’s service is beginning to take a foothold in the game streaming market. After a shaky launch, the service has become a great alternative to console gaming, offering AAA titles like Destiny 2 and Cyberpunk 2077, the latter of which provides users with an experience that’s superior to what’s available on last generation consoles.

With a $9.99 monthly subscription, customers can stream certain titles for free or buy titles and stream them to their phone, tablet, or computer. On the iPhone and iPad, you can play games with built-in touch controls, but you won’t get the full experience until you connect a Stadia controller or a Bluetooth gamepad.

iPhone owners might not find Stadia to be the most compelling experience on such a small screen. But on iPad it’s a different story. You might not use an iOS device as your preferred way to play Cyberpunk 2077, but it sure is cool that’s even possible in the first place.

To add a web shortcut to Stadia on your iPhone or iPad’s home screen, launch the Safari app and then navigate to stadia.com. Once you’re signed in, hit the Share icon and “Add to home screen.” Google said iOS users will need to be updated to iOS 14.3, which was released earlier this week.

Until Apple allows companies that offer game streaming services to put apps in the App Store, this is the next best option.

Stadia (Free, Google Play) →

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Google Photos adds Maps timeline to better relive your memories

Love it or hate it, the timeline feature in Google Maps is incredibly convenient because it shows you every place you’ve ever been. Seems like that would be nice to have in Google Photos, right? Google seems to think so, which is why the company added the feature in Google Photos v5.23.0.

Now, when you look at your images in Google Photos, you’ll see your Maps timeline and the photos you took along the way. To use the feature, hop into Google Photos and go to the Search tab. A new warning popup will explain that Maps timeline has been added to the map, along with a link explaining the new feature.

“You can use your photos’ locations to organize, search, and explore your photos based on where they were taken,” Google says on a support page.

Images via Android Police

Seeing what route you took and the pictures you snapped along the way is a fun way to relive old memories. At the very least, it’s a great way to recap the things you did on a particular vacation. (Speaking of which, Google Maps actually just added a Trips tab to help you retrace that vacation you took before the pandemic hit.)

“Your map shows photos including shares photos you’ve saved,” Google explains. It uses location info such as your camera’s GPS, detected landmarks, and your location history.”

If you want, you can turn your private timeline view off. I see the feature in my app on iOS, but I can’t quite get the blue path to show up.

The integration of a timeline view seems like a natural progression of Google Photos, which has been the recipient of a number of updates this year. Recently, Google announced the service will soon add a new cinematic feature that will make images appear 3D.

It’s a helpful addition for people who like to relive previous trips, or perhaps share a route they took during a vacation. But Google Photos users may not want to get too attached. Earlier this year, Google announced that it will no longer offer unlimited free storage, making the service just another storage option.

Google Photos (Free, Google Play) →

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Need a webcam for work? You can pick up a quality Aukey 1080p webcam for just $28!

Working from home has a lot of benefits, but at times you might feel as though you’re missing important equipment. There are plenty of software solutions, but with hardware, you might be having more issues. Many people have a sudden need for webcams as online meetings become a necessity, but it leads to a bit of a problem–suddenly, they’re hard to find anywhere! Thankfully, Aukey has a quality webcam available for purchase… and better yet, it’s on sale!

I’ve found Aukey to a quality budget brand, and I’m lead to believe that the Aukey FHD Webcam will be of great quality as well. This webcam offers 1080p capabilities so that you won’t look grainy or jittery in Zoom or Google Meet calls. This Aukey webcam also comes with a built-in microphone, so you don’t need to wear a headset while using it. Finally, you don’t need to download any software to get it going. As much as I like my old Logitech webcam, dealing with the Logi Capture software is always one of the most annoying parts of using it. No need to worry about that with this webcam!

Now, is this the perfect webcam if, say, you want to Stream on Twitch or create videos for YouTube? Probably not. This webcam maxes out at 30fps, which may look a little strange for videos or streaming that’s focused on you specifically. Not that you can’t use it, but if you can find a 60fps webcam, it’ll generally be a better bet.

But, for most of us, the Aukey FHD Webcam will be perfect. This webcam normally goes for $60 but has a flat $10 discount applied. But, you can save even more by using the code QHX7A7H5 at checkout! When applied, the total order drops to around $28. For a webcam from a well-known company, that’s an incredible price!

Aukey FHD Webcam

Normally $60, you can get this Aukey webcam for just $28! Make sure to use the code QHX7A7H5at checkout to get the full discount.

Buy at Amazon

The coupon code is scheduled to stay live until December 20, or until the webcam sells out. Don’t wait on this one!

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