Google adds Shona to their services

Google has announced the expansion of its Voice Search, Gboard’s speech-to-text feature and Translate’s voice input with support for 15 additional African languages, including Shona. This initiative is the result of a collaboration between Google Speech and a research team from the AI Research Center in Accra, Ghana.

The new languages introduced include Chichewa, Hausa, Igbo, Kikuyu, Nigerian Pidgin, Oromo, Rundi, Shona, Somali, Tigrinya, Twi, Southern Ndebele, Swati, Tswana and Yoruba. This expansion brings the number of African languages with voice support to 25, and the global total to 94.

This addition aims to increase digital inclusivity, allowing approximately 300 million additional people on the African continent to access the internet and communicate in their native language using voice technology.

Language accessibility in African countries

Google Shona — Google adds Shona to their services: Image Source@google

In Ethiopia, where Amharic is already supported, the addition of Oromo and Tigrinya will give more than 85 million Ethiopians (about 70% of the country’s population) access to Google’s voice-enabled features for typing, searching and translating in their native language.

In Kenya, Kikuyu now joins Swahili on Gboard and Voice Search, expanding language options for users. Similarly, speakers of Somali and Rundi in Somalia and Burundi respectively can now access Google’s voice services in their primary language.

For Southern Africa, Google has added Chichewa for Malawi and Shona for Zimbabwe, supporting almost 65% of the Malawian population. approximately 12 million Shona speakers in Zimbabwe, including Google’s own Senior Vice President for Research, Technology & Society, James Manyika.

Boosting digital inclusion and technological access

Led by Google’s Product Development Center in Nairobi, Kenya, and Google’s AI Research Center in Accra, Ghana, this initiative highlights its commitment to increasing digital access across the continent.

“This technology will make a difference to more than 300 million people across the continent, allowing them to interact with the internet using just their voice. It is an example of how Google in Africa is building technology for Africans and the world,” said Alex Okosi, Managing Director of Google Africa.