Google Home Arrives In India

Google expands the market for its voice-activated smart speakers by rolling out its Google Home devices in India.

According to news from BGR, the Google Assistant-powered Google Home will sell for 9,999 rupees, while the Home Mini will go for 4,499 rupees. The devices will be available on Flipkart, the Indian eCommerce site, and in 750 retail stores, such as Reliance Digital, Croma and Vijay Sales.

“These products have been customised to match the needs of the Indian consumer. It understands Indian accents and will respond to users with uniquely Indian contexts,” Google VP of Product Management and General Manager of Home Products Rishi Chandra said at a press conference covered by BGR. He noted that Google has inked partnerships with Saavn, Gaana, India Today and Aaj Tak, among others, to provide content via the smart speakers.

The company also plans to provide support for the Hindi language in the voice-activated speakers: “Google Assistant is available in India in Hindi and English. It has increasingly become popular in India … We have 4.5 lakh marriage proposals to Google Assistant from India,” Chandra added. The executive said the devices will come equipped with a voice match tool that can tell the difference between individuals’ voices to provide a personalized experience. It has two microphones to enable it to accurately recognize a voice from far away.

“Google has simulated hundreds of thousands of noisy environments and applied machine learning to recognize patterns that allow it to filter and separate speech from noise,” Chandra said.

Google is in a race with Amazon for dominance of the voice-activated speaker market. Amazon’s Echo smart speakers, powered by Alexa, have been popular around the world. Google is trying to catch up and has been pulling out all the stops in recent months to succeed in the emerging market.