Google for India 2024: New AI, Payments and Health Features Revealed

Google announced several new features for its apps and services at the Google for India 2024 event on Thursday. The company announced improvements to Google Pay with support for personal and gold loans, and showcased new health-related features developed in collaboration with the healthcare industry. The company also unveiled new features to detect and protect users from scams. Google also announced that it is rolling out support for Gemini Live and its AI search overviews in regional languages.

At the annual Google for India event in Delhi, the company announced improvements to the search experience, including the ability to let customers reach businesses directly via WhatsApp. Previously, entries could include a phone number that could be tapped to make a call. Google Maps has also been updated with support for real-time flood and fog warnings, according to the search giant.

The company offers support for personal loans and gold loans through Google Pay, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) app. It also announced new partnerships with Aditya Birla Capital Finance for personal loans and Muthoot Finance for gold loans. With Google’s revised limits, customers can now access personal loans worth up to Rs. 5 lakh and gold loans worth Rs. 50 lakhs.

Google’s AI tools have enabled free cancer and tuberculosis screenings in India
Photo credits: Google

As part of the DigiKavach initiative, Google says it has saved users from scams worth Rs. According to the company, more than 170 million fraudulent reviews were automatically detected and removed on Google Maps. Google says Android users in India will soon be protected with a new, improved fraud protection feature that prevents users from sideloading malicious apps that request access to critical permissions.

Google also showed off new health features integrated by the company’s partners such as Apollo Hospitals, which uses the company’s deep learning models to improve diagnostic services. The company’s AI tools also enable support for tuberculosis and cancer screening across regions – at no cost to patients.

Google also says it is rolling out support for Gemini Live in nine languages, including Hindi, allowing users to talk to the AI ​​assistant with real-time responses. AI Summaries, another feature previously available in Hindi and English, will soon be available in four additional regional languages: Bengali, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu.