On Wednesday, Google announced the launch of its new app, Bolo, designed to help kids learn both Hindi and English.
The app, whose name translates to “speak” in Hindi, works without an internet connection, as reported by 9to5google. That helps ensure the app remains accessible, even if people are in remote locations without reliable internet access.
“We believe technology has the power to help transform teaching and learning, and have been actively directing our products, programs and philanthropy to ensure that all students are able to benefit from it,” Google India wrote in its blog post.
Bolo is designed for elementary school students and uses Google’s speech recognition and text-to-speech technology. In addition, Google shared that Bolo comes with a built-in reading buddy for kids called “Diya.”
“Diya encourages, aids, explains, and corrects the child as they read aloud — anytime, anywhere,” Google said.
Essentially, the app works by having kids read sentences and phrases. It’ll listen to what they said and then use Diya to help out with pronunciation before moving on in a story. When kids are learning English, Diya will also help out by giving the meaning of a word in Hindi.
Right now, the app has 50 stories in Hindi and 40 in English from Storyweaver.org.in. More stories will be added soon.
