Google unveils new India-centric features at Google House event

Google announced at its I/O earlier this year, that they would be looking to add features that cater to countries where fast internet connections are not the norm, and they officially demonthe fruits of that effort at their Google House event earlier today. 

As Sandeep Menon, Google Country Marketing Director explains “Indians are coming online from mobile devices at an incredibly rapid rate — six to seven million new mobile internet users every month. Today’s event is about showcasing how we’re working to make our products relevant and useful for India, and how smartphones have evolved to become the best personal assistant you’ve never had."

One demonstration was that of the new instant translation feature in Google Translate. Recently launched in Hindi as well, it helps you instantly translating printed text like, street signs or ingredient lists, by opening the app on your phone and pointing your camera at the text. There was also a deeper look at the new Google Photos app, which automatically backs up photos and videos across all your synced devices. Google Photos also offers unlimited, free storage for life, and automatically organises your folders.  

There have been recent updates to Search as well, like faster and lighter search results for people accessing the web from a mobile device with a slow connection like 2G, and voice search updates to the Google app which has been optimised for English in the Indian accent and in Hindi. In addition, there are a few offline features as well, like the ability to save Maps for when you don't have an internet connection available, or YouTube Offline, which gives you a way to possibly download videos over a WiFi connection, and later watch them without chewing through your phone data.