Sharing what’s up our sleeve: Android coming to wearables - the biggest hurdle: Languages

Posted by Sundar Pichai, SVP, Android, Chrome & Apps:

“Today we’re announcing Android Wear, a project that extends Android to wearables. And we’re starting with the most familiar wearable—watches. Going well beyond the mere act of just telling you the time, a range of new devices along with an expansive catalogue of apps will give you: Useful information when you need it most. Android Wear shows you info and suggestions you need, right when you need them. The wide variety of Android applications means you’ll receive the latest posts and updates from your favorite social apps, chats from your preferred messaging apps, notifications from shopping, news and photography apps, and more. Straight answers to spoken questions. Just say “Ok Google” to ask questions, like how many calories are in an avocado, what time your flight leaves, and the score of the game. Or say “Ok Google” to get stuff done, like calling a taxi, sending a text, making a restaurant reservation or setting an alarm. The ability to better monitor your health and fitness. Hit your exercise goals with reminders and fitness summaries from Android Wear. Your favorite fitness apps can give you real-time speed, distance and time information on your wrist for your run, cycle or walk. Your key to a multiscreen world. Android Wear lets you access and control other devices from your wrist. Just say “Ok Google” to fire up a music playlist on your phone, or cast your favorite movie to your TV. There’s a lot of possibilities here so we’re eager to see what developers build”.

Yes I'll admit the new Android Wear looks interesting, but as I've said before, the biggest hurdle for voice driven devices like these smartwatches, is the language barrier. Google, Motorola and Apple has still not managed to make their voice services - Google Now and Apple Siri to support international languages. They still support to few different languages, and will probably never support for example my language: Swedish. And yes, of course I can use English but that is not the problem, the problem is to have these services understanding our names on restaurants, people, buildings, places and much, much more. They don't understand ÅÄÖ for example.

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