From today onwards, you can now speak to your Google Assistant in Mandarin. Th Google Assistant will start rolling out in Simplified Chinese 中文(简体) to Android phones Lollipop and above, including the new Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL, and it’ll become available for iPhones in the coming weeks.
Powered by machine learning, the personal assistant helps you accomplish what you have been doing with English in a natural way by voice. You can check the weather, distance and time from one location to another or the weather of Kuala Lumpur all in Mandarin.
Prior to this launch, Google Assistant has already been available for the Taiwanese market in Mandarin and Chinese traditional text months ago.. The version that is launched today is in simplified Chinese text and has more localised content for the Singapore market.
The Google Assistant is built on two decades of experience in natural language processing, computer vision, and understanding context. That’s how your Assistant is able to understand the intent behind words and handle follow-up questions and complex, multi-step tasks and it’ll get better over time. It can learn your preferences, your likes and your dislikes – all done in a private, secure way that puts you in control.
The Google Assistant truly understands what’s important to you, from getting recommendations for chicken rice nearby, to helping with a quick translation into Korean or playing your favourite tune by Jay Chou on YouTube.
Here are some examples of questions you can ask your Google Assistant:
- Show my photos in Bali. 打开我在巴厘岛的照片
- Play 安静 (An Jing) by Jay Chou on Spotify. 用”Spotify”播放周杰伦的安静
- Tell me a joke. 讲个笑话
- How can I get from the Peranakan Museum to the National Gallery Singapore? 怎么从土生文化馆去国家美术馆
- Where’s the nearest hawker centre? 最近的小贩中心在哪里？
- How do you say “Where is the nearest subway station in Korean?” 怎么用韩语说“地铁站在哪里”？
- How do I bake a Banana cake? 如何做香蕉面包
- How many people are there in Singapore? 新加坡人口有多少？
To access the Google Assistant in Simplified Chinese on Android, simply set your device language to Simplified Chinese and make sure that you’ve updated the operating system to the latest version. To get started, touch and hold the Home button on your phone and Google Assistant will be ready to help you throughout your day––even when your hands are full.
The Google Assistant is starting to roll out in Simplified Chinese today on Android phones 5.0+ (Lollipop and above).* It’ll also soon be accessible for iPhones (iOS 9.1+).
*Works on phones and tablets with Google Play Services, 720p or higher screen resolution, and Android 5.0 or higher with >1.0GB of memory. Please make sure your Google Search App has been updated to the latest version.
The Google Assistant in Chinese simplified is only available on mobile phones and will be supported on Google Home in the future.