In previous posts, we’ve talked about how voice technology can greatly expand the range of functionality an Indian language internet user can expect to enjoy from a website or an app. We’ve also talked about how the most used platforms by these users are, by far, entertainment, social media, and messaging apps. We’ve even gone over the reasons – low barriers to access, catchy, enjoyable to consume content, and the social aspect are chief among them.
Entertainment in particular is a mainstay of this segment of users. According to a Google-KPMG study, over 90% of Indian language internet users are connected to entertainment platforms.321 million Indians will be on digital entertainment platforms by 2021. The current base has already crossed 175 million.
Indic Voice Support For Digital Entertainment Platforms
Voice Technology & Entertainment Platforms
We have spoken about how voice technology can greatly enhance user experience for Indian language internet users by offering them a way to leapfrog over unintuitive UI/UX and interfaces ultimately designed for mature, English speaking users. Digital Indian platforms have traditionally targeted this user base, ignoring the issues users who are entirely new to the internet – users who overwhelmingly use Indian languages online – would face on their platforms.
Voice effectively lets these users interact directly with platforms just by speaking into devices, which means that unintuitive UI/UX and interfaces will not hinder their user experience. After all, for a new internet user, speaking to a device a whole lot more intuitive than scrolling through options and physically selecting them. What makes this even more intuitive is the use of Indian languages, the same languages that these new users speak. A platform cannot be English only, and voice solutions must also support Indian languages to truly gain acceptance.
What makes Indian language support doubly important is that most Indians, even those who use English interfaces, primarily consume entertainment in Indian languages. This means Indian language titles, often with English words mixed in, just like everyday conversation works in Indian languages.
The entertainment domain is also set to emerge as the largest space for advertisers targeting Indian language internet users.
Multilingual Indic Voice Search
The most basic application of voice in the context of entertainment platforms of course, is voice search. Voice search lets users speak out what content they would like to see, letting them do away with menus and search bars and most importantly, typing. Typing in Indic languages is not very intuitive for new users, and entertainment platforms usually have stripped down input forms to begin with.
Voice lets users find what they’re looking for, in their language of choice, merely by stating what it is they’d like to access. In the case of multiple options, voice can then be used to further select the most suitable option among the ones presented, ultimately letting the user access the content. This significantly reduces the amount of effort required to find content, letting users do more with entertainment platforms, and consume more content.
Indic Voice Command
While being able to find content is undoubtedly important, interactivity is of course a major part of using any platform. Voice technology can allow Indian language internet users to interact with platforms directly, letting them play videos, rewind, skip, pause, and more just through verbal commands.
Since existing UI/UX and interfaces can be confusing for Indian language internet users, voice command can greatly extend the range of utility and level of comfort and ease these users are able to derive from an entertainment platform, letting them painlessly access the content they love.
Enabling Indic Voice Support On Your Entertainment Platform
Indian language voice support must go hand in hand with the process of interface localization, a process we’ve spoken more about earlier. Something we keep repeating is that end users must receive an unbroken, end-to-end user experience in their own language, with no breaks. In this context, both voice and text interfaces and accessibility must blend together to ensure that a user does not have to face English at any step of the way if they choose an Indian language as their interface language.
To enable wider adoption and usage of Indian language voice technology powered services, we at Reverie have built Gopal, our Indic language voice suite that supports 12 Indian languages (including Indian English) across various domains and use cases. Gopal can help your Indian language users get much more out your platform.
Contact us for a trial today!
