From web searches through voice inputs, to posting audio messages on their platforms, companies have realised that in a country like India, where education for all is not a guarantee, voice makes for a better and easier option to onboard people.
Even as almost half of the world’s population is on the internet now, big and small tech companies would continue to push and bring more people online.
The Mary Meeker report on Internet Trends 2018 — an annual document that is widely awaited each year in the technology industry — was recently released, and it speaks of the 3.6 billion people who are now online. The figure is somewhat surprising as smartphone shipments did not grow during the period.
The trend shows that growth has hit a plateau, but tech firms will look to attract more people via innovative products and services.
Although the report did not have ample India-specific data, China was clearly marked out as a competitor catching up fast with innovation that is mostly witnessed in the US.
One way for the internet to grow, at least in India, which is seen more of a consumer than producer of technology, is through voice. And there is no doubt why companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook are pushing more voice-based products and services.
From web searches through voice inputs, to posting audio messages on their platforms, companies have realised that voice makes for a better and easier option to bring people on board.
However, with varied Indian accents, there seemed to be a problem in the voice segment. While Google’s work in natural language processing has been remarkable — its machine learning word accuracy reached 95 percent — voice assistants across platforms struggle to recognise varied local speech patterns.
Here’s an example of a Scottish woman struggling with instructions to Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa, the video is equally frustrating and funny.
In the coming years, it is expected that major tech companies would resolve the issue.
Closer home, Baba Ramdev’s FMCG firm Patanjali launched a “swadeshi” competitor to WhatsApp, which was pulled off within a day over security concerns flagged by a French security researcher on Twitter.
Another user pointed out that the code of the app had been lifted from an existing chat application called Bolo Messenger.
While copy cats propped up on Google’s Play Store within a few hours, the security concerns in the Kimbho app once again highlight the need to address data protection and privacy issues better.
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