Google today launched a new application called “Read Along”, the application is designed to help elementary students practice their reading skills. This new Android application is based on Google’s existing application “Bolo”, which was launched in India last year and contains Bible reading stories in English and Hindi. The updated and renamed “Read Along” is now available worldwide and supports nine languages.
Read Along also uses Google’s speech recognition and text-to-speech features to help children learn to read.
The application contains a built-in reading assistant called Diya. When the children read aloud, Diya will find out if the child has phonetic problems, and then help the child to pronounce accurately through positive challenges. Children can also ask Diya to help them read sentences or pronunciations they do n’t know.
As children slowly improve their reading level with the help of the application, they will get some word game content and get some built-in rewards in the application. Google said that the development of this application takes into account the privacy of children and can work normally without Wi-Fi or data traffic. Voice data will be analyzed on the device in real-time, and will not be synchronized, stored, or analyzed on Google ’s servers. The company also emphasized that it did not use children’s voice samples to make the product better.
The app also does not contain advertisements or in-app purchases. If parents want to download other stories, they can choose to connect to the Internet without paying. In the beginning, “Read Along” provided about 500 stories, and the catalog continued to add new books.
The application can be downloaded for free on Google Play and is suitable for children over 5 years old.