As smartphones have found their way in rural India as well, Google has introduced a speech based reading-tutor app called Bolo for children who would otherwise not have access to a good education support system. It is available in India free of cost and works offline too. It perhaps the only available source for educating the children from rural and financially challenged families.
Built upon Google’s text-to-speech technology, this app aids children improve upon their Hindi and English reading skills through an animated digital assistant Diya. It reads the text aloud to them and also explains the meaning of the English Text. It’s engaging stories improves their comprehension skills. The app is designed such that the children would not require any help in using it. Google is working with other companies too to bring in more content into the app. To attract children into using the app Google has added in-app rewards, badges and word games. It is a multi user app and each can keep a track of their progress individually.
Bolo app can be downloaded from Google Play.
