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The Google Assistant SDK adds support for additional languages & more

In addition to new language support, Google has added customized settings, text-based queries & responses, device action functionality and more.

Barry Schwartz on December 21, 2017 at 9:46 am

Voice, mobile & apps – get the latest on Google’s search developments at SMX

Google announced it has expanded the Google Assistant software development kit to support additional languages. That means developers can now bring Google Assistant applications to more people. Google Assistant now supports these additional languages and regions English Australia, English Canada, English UK, English US, French Canadian, French France, German and Japanese.

Lack of support for languages can impede development on the platform. For example, my company has been trying to find ways around language barriers to build Jewish apps, but Hebrew is not yet supported. The difficulty is having the Google Assistant APIs understand the language or regional language dialects and respond with a proper answer. So in this example, if someone asks what time is mincha, which is afternoon services in the Jewish world, Google cannot understand the word “mincha” because it is a Hebrew word. Bringing more support for additional languages and regions helps Google expand the ecosystem of the Google Assistant platform.

Other improvements to the Google Assistant SDK include more customized settings, including changing the device’s language, location and nickname and enabling personalized results. The API now also supports text-based queries and responses. Developers can also utilize the new Device Action functionality to build Actions directly into your Assistant-enabled SDK devices. Also, new APIs allow developers to register, unregister and see all devices that you have registered for better device management support.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.