Google’s mission to make the world’s information universally accessible and effective has become more inclusive with the addition of 15 new African languages across its platforms: Voice Search, Gboard’s talk-to-type, and Google Translate dictation.  

The tech giant confirmed that Gboard and Voice Search now support 12 new languages, increasing the total to 25. Additionally, Google Translate introduced 13 new languages for voice input, bringing the total to 22.  

Over 200 African languages are already supported on Gboard through custom keyboards, and over 60 languages were previously available for automatic translation on Translate. However, these new additions aim to enhance accessibility, enabling approximately 300 million more Africans to interact with the web using voice commands.  

New Language Additions

• Voice Search & Gboard (Talk-to-Type): Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Nigerian Pidgin, Chichewa, Kikuyu, Oromo, Rundi, Shona, Somali, Tigrinya, and Twi. 

• Google Translate (Voice Input): Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Chichewa, Oromo, Rundi, Shona, Somali, South Ndebele, Swati, Tigrinya, Tswana, and Twi.  

Google attributes these improvements to AI-powered multilingual speech recognition, which converts speech to text. Similar to Ijemma Onwuzulike’s IgboSpeech, which leverages an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) model to convert Igbo audio into text, Google’s AI-backed language model mimics the way a child learns. It associates sounds with written character sequences, thereby delivering more accurate speech-to-text capabilities across a wide range of languages.

Meanwhile, Google also announced a $5.8 million investment in AI and cybersecurity education as part of its efforts to drive digital progress across Sub-Saharan Africa. The initiative aims to equip workers and students with foundational skills, with a particular focus on Nigeria and Kenya, advancing digital literacy and workforce readiness in the region.  

These investments complement the initial $20 million of Google.org funding directed towards organizations that help Africans acquire digital skills under Google’s economic opportunity initiative. These efforts are also aligned with Grow with Google, a separate program from Google.org that trained over 6.5 million people across Africa in 2023 alone. The goal is to empower individuals with the digital tools they need to grow their careers or businesses effectively.

Google’s latest moves are grounded in the ongoing technological transformations expected to shape Africa’s future over the next decade. For the first time, more than half of the continent’s population is projected to gain Internet access. Moreover, artificial intelligence is forecasted to contribute approximately $30 billion to the economy of Sub-Saharan Africa.