Amazon on Tuesday announced that developers can now start building Alexa skills for customers in India with the new Hindi voice model available in Alexa Skills Kit (ASK). This will make sure Alexa is matching up with Google Assistant, which has been supporting Hindi for quite sometime now.
Developers would get a head start and submit skills for certification as the company prepare to offer engaging experiences for Alexa users in one of the most spoken languages in the country, the company said in a statement.
Commercial hardware manufacturers who want to develop Alexa Built-in products for Hindi-speaking customers in India can request early access to the invite-only Alexa Voice Service (AVS) developer preview, the company said.
The Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) is a collection of free, self-service APIs and tools that make it fast and easy for developers to create skills, or capabilities, for Alexa.
Amazon last year launched a new category of skill called "Cleo" that enables customers in India help Alexa learn Hindi and other languages. The idea was to improve Alexa's language model and help her gradually speak in local languages.
Right now, Alexa can understand some Hinglish commands but these are few and far between.
One can sign up for the first webinar on Hindi skill building scheduled on July 24. Developers in India who have their Hindi-language skill certified for publication in India before July 31 would receive exclusive early bird Alexa merchandise.
Alexa is currently available in over 80 countries and speaks more than 14 language variants but looks like Hindi has been hard to integrate for Amazon in the country.
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