Google Bolo: A fun and interactive reading-tutor Android app for Indian children

Search engine giant Google has long been introducing Android apps to help consumers make use of available technology to get their work done without any hassle. Now, it has come up with a novel app dubbed as Bolo that will greatly benefit children in their studies and overall development.

Bolo, a Hindi word, which means speak in English is developed to help children improve their reading skills. As per the Annual Status of Education Report (ASEP) 2018 study, half of India' grade 5 students can't even read grade 2 text books. That's really bad, as this might have a negative impact on child and lose motivation to continue further studies leading to an uncertain life.

So, Google, in a bid to change the fortune of the kids, has launched the Bolo Android app. It comes with a bot Diya, which is powered by Google's speech recognition and text-to-speech technology. It encourages aids, explains and corrects the child, as they read aloud -- anytime, anywhere. As of now, it is available in Hindi and English languages.

Most importantly, Google Bolo app has high security features, which means all private details will remain in the phone and also there is no way children could stray off to any age-inappropriate website or get access to adult contents.

Key aspects of Google Bolo:

• Diya, the reading buddy will offer personalized reading tutoring and assists the children at every step, giving both positive and corrective feedback.
• All the reading material on the app is completely free and the initial catalogue from Storyweaver.org.in includes 50 stories in Hindi & 40 in English; with more being added by other partners soon.
• In a bid to keepchildren the motivated, Bolo app also offers interesting word games and earn in-app rewards and badges, helping reading become both fun and a daily habit.
• Numerous children can log in to this app on the same mobile, and be able to track their progress separately. Over time the difficulty level of recommended stories adjusts to their reading skills.
• The reading buddy Diya can not only read out the text to your child, but also explain the meaning of English text in Hindi.
• Another interesting thing about the app is that it works even when offline, so children can just focus on reading and to make sure there is no distraction, Google has made this Bolo app completely ads free.
• The app has been designed with children's safety and security in mind and all personal information always stays on device.
• Google Bolo app works on mobiles with Android 4.4 or later OS versions.

 For the past several months, Google has been testing the beta version of Bolo app in around 200 villages in Uttar Pradesh, a northern state of India. Apparently, more than 64-percent children showed improvements in terms of reading ability in their local language (Hindi).

Now, with the official launch Bolo app will be available to the whole of India, but it will be great if Google brings other local dialects such as Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu support in Bolo app which are predominantly spoken in South India.