Google adds six Indic languages in Gmail for feature phone users

Google has announced support for six Indic languages --Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu – in Gmail for feature phones.

"Some 500 million new users from around the world will join the Internet between now and 2015. Since most will experience the web for the first time on a mobile device, it's important that people everywhere can communicate in the language they know best," Ian Hill, project manager, Google Localization said on the official Gmail blog.

Users can set their preferred the language by clicking settings options in Gmail.

Recently, Google launched Google Hindi Input app for its Android mobile operating system to enable swifter text message in the Indian language. The app installs a keyboard option in the Android phone or tablet which changes Hindi words typed in English to the Devanagri script.

These India-focused launches substantiate what Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said while addressing delegates at the Google's Big Tent event held in New Delhi recently. "The math favours India and I am a mathematician," he had said.

Twitter recently made its archiving tool available in twelve non-English languages including Hindi.

Earlier, China headquartered WeChat, a free mobile voice and text messaging android app, added Hindi to its language bouquet to gain traction in the Indian market.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)