News Obiaks News

Tech giant, Google, on Wednesday announced new products and features to make it more helpful to users in Nigeria and across Africa. Among the new products include navigation instructions in a Nigerian voice for both motorcycle and car driving modes. Other new features include imagery for Street View, Gallery Go, Google Go updates, Google Lens and Bolo, and a Nigerian culinary experience from Google Arts and Culture.
        The tech giant has also partnered with the Nigerian Government to make an online safety curriculum available to all primary and secondary school students in the country, reaching an estimated 56 million Nigerian students every year. A dedicated travel mode has also been introduced in Google Maps to provide directions and navigation for motorcycles in Nigeria. This will also be available in Benin Republic, Ghana, Rwanda, Togo and Uganda from today. A navigation instruction has also been launched in a Nigerian voice for both motorcycle and car driving modes. In the next few months, Google will introduce a new directions experience for Lagos that is optimised for informal transit, bringing Danfo routes into Google Maps to help make it easier to visually explore places in Nigeria. Another new product, Gallery Go is a fast and smart photo gallery designed for users who don’t have a reliable internet connection. Gallery Go brings many of the best features of Google Photos on device, to help them find, edit and manage their photos even when they are offline. The app is only 10MB to keep the phone light and fast, so that you can spend more time capturing memories. It also makes it easier for people to discover the best of the internet even on low-RAM smartphones or unstable network connections. Another product, Google Lens helps people to find out more about the world around them through their camera and photos. It helps people read, translate, and search the words they see simply by using their camera. Users can open Google Lens, point it at a sign, and listen to the words read out loud. If they don’t speak the language, they can translate it into their own. Today, Google is also launching support for Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo.
        Bolo is a speech-based reading app that helps kids learn how to read in English. It encourages them to read out loud and then provides individual, customised feedback to help improve their reading capabilities. We launched Bolo in India earlier this year and today, we’re bringing it to Nigeria and Ghana. Google Arts and Culture has cooked up a project, ‘Come Chop Bellefull: A Taste of Nigeria’, which pays tribute to Nigeria’s vibrant and diverse food culture. People across the world can now explore Nigerian regional cooking and culture through 2,000 high-resolution images and 30 stories created in collaboration with The Centenary Project at the Pan-Atlantic University. According to Google Nigeria Country Director, Juliet Ehimaun Chiazor, “Every day, people in Nigeria, Africa and around the world turn to Google for help.” She hopes that the products and updates will make Google even more helpful for fueling people’s hustles and getting things done.