Google Releases Speech Recognition App Bolo To Help Kids Learn To Read in India; Intends To Bring It To Other Countries in Future

Google today released a learning app for primary school children in India as part of an effort to cement its grip on the world's fastest-growing internet market. From a report: The Android app, called Bolo, aims to help young kids improve their reading comprehension and vocabulary skills in Hindi and English. Bolo (the Hindi word for 'speak') features a range of games, and tasks, and it rewards kids as they progress.

Bolo, which is powered by Google's speech recognition and text-to-speech technology, first asks kids to read sentences. The app then listens to the efforts and reviews them, and an animated voice assistant -- called Diya -- suggests pronunciation and vocabulary corrections wherever applicable. The app comes preloaded with several stories -- Google says 90 stories in Hindi and English are available at launch. Children can engage with the app at a pace they are comfortable with, and their progress can be shared with their parents. Google is releasing Bolo in India first, with plans to bring it to other countries in the future. The company said it will also add support for more languages soon.

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