Google Now Answers People’s Questions in India Without an Internet Connection

Google is launching some new services in India this week. The company launched some new features for Android TV in India earlier this week, and it’s now announcing improvements to its core services to help make the internet more accessible to Indians.

Google is introducing a new phone line for Vodafone-Idea users in India that will allow them to call a single number (000 0800 9191000), free of charge. Calling the number will allow the users to ask any question and get instant answers — without needing the internet or without having to pay at all. Google says the service will answer “everything” ranging from weather forecasts to sports scores, and can even help with your homework. It’s only limited to users of Vodafone-Idea for now, but it could expand to all the other Indian carriers in the future.

Google Assistant is also getting improved in India as Hindi is now the second-most used Assistant language globally. You can now say “Hey Google, talk to me in Hindi” or any of the other supported Indian languages, and Assistant will automatically start talking in that language without you having to manually change the settings.

Last but not least, Google is introducing a new Spot platform within Google Pay where businesses can now offer improved experiences within the Google Pay app to reach more customers. It’s also launching a new app dedicated for small business to help them enable digital payments, and a new feature within Spot to help the public find entry-level jobs that’d apparently be harder to discover online.