Last month, Google began expanding Assistant apps around the world with a rollout to the United Kingdom. Beginning today, users in Australia can access Actions on Google, while developers can start building apps for Australian English.
Today’s rollout sees the launch of a local apps directory for Google Home, Android, and iOS users in Australia. Existing English applications will automatically appear in the list, but there are a number of steps that developers can take to optimize their work.
Like with the British English launch, there are several new text-to-speech voices that feature Australian accents to make the experience more native. Google will automatically select one of the new voices for apps or developers can opt to use their existing voice by heading into the Actions console.
Meanwhile, Google has a guide on how developers can accommodate their apps for language and cultural differences:
We also recommend reviewing your response text strings and making adjustments to accommodate for differences between the languages, like making sure you know the important things, like candy should be lollies and servo is a gas station.
Google ends today’s announcement with a promise that Actions on Google will expand to more countries over the next year:
UK and Aussie users are just the start, we’ll continue to make the Actions on Google platform available in more languages over the coming year.
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