At the Google for Nigeria event today, Google announced new products and features primarily for the Nigerian environment and also for customers across Africa.
Here are the new products and features:
Introducing New Google Maps travel modes and Danfo routes
Google Maps is introducing a dedicated travel mode to provide directions and navigation for motorcycles in Nigeria, Benin Republic, Ghana, Rwanda, Togo and Uganda. This is in recognition of the importance of motorcycles or bikes in everyday living in Africa.
Google Maps has also introduced navigation instructions in a Nigerian voice for both motorcycle and car driving modes, so that local names and places get pronounced as they should be.
And guess what? We now have Danfo routes on Google Maps. This is a new direction experience for Lagos optimized for informal transit.
To help make it easier to explore places in Nigeria, Google is publishing more panoramic imagery on Street View. It started with imagery of Lagos two years ago, and now there’s imagery of Abuja, Benin City, Enugu and Ibadan with almost 12 thousand kilometers of roads added.
Gallery Go: a photo gallery that works offline
With the growth of Android, more Nigerians have phones that take pictures. But not everyone has access to reliable, high-speed internet or cloud backup to quickly find a photo.
Gallery Go is designed for people who don’t have a reliable internet connection. It brings many of the best features of Google Photos on device, to help you find, edit and manage your photos even when you’re offline.
The app keeps your photos automatically organized and make your snaps look their best with easy editing tools such as one-tap auto-enhance. The app is only 10MB to keep your phone light and fast, so that you can spend more time capturing memories.
Gallery Go is available today on Google Play for devices running Android 8.1 (Oreo) or higher and will come pre-installed as the gallery app on the Itel S15 and select A55 devices, which will be available in Nigeria soon.
Google Go: Helping you enjoy the best of the web
Google Go makes it easier to discover the best of the internet even on low-RAM smartphones or unstable network connections. Today, Google announced some updates to make Google Go even more useful. The Discover feed is now integrated within Google Go to help you stay in the know with your interests, like the latest content on your football team, people of interest, music and news stories.
Starting next week, you can access the Assistant directly from Google Go. Using only your voice, you can ask Google to call your mum, play the latest Burna Boy video, or find you the best jollof in town. And there’s a new Nigerian voice for the Assistant too.
Google Lens and Bolo: understanding and learning made easy
Google Lens has been helping people to find out more about the world around them through their camera and photos. Now Google launched Lens inside Google Go to help people read, translate and search the words they see simply by using their camera. You can open Lens, point it at a sign, and listen to the words read out loud. If you don’t speak the language, you can translate it into your own. Today, Google launched support for Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo.
Bolo is a speech-based reading app that helps kids learn how to read in English. It encourages them to read out loud and then provides individual, customized feedback to help improve their reading capabilities. It’s already available in India, and today it is coming to Nigeria and Ghana.
A taste of Nigeria with Google Arts & Culture
Google Arts & Culture cooked up a project, “Come Chop Bellefull: A Taste of Nigeria,” that pays tribute to Nigeria’s vibrant and diverse food culture that spans generations and geography. You can explore Nigerian regional cooking and culture through 2,000 high resolution images and 30 stories created in collaboration with The Centenary Project at the Pan-Atlantic University.
Step inside Mama Ashake’s Kitchen, join the celebration of the New Yam Festival with Nike Davies-Okundaye and discover the secret recipe of Jazzhole owner Tundun Tejuoso’s favourite drinks. Learn more about delicacies from Ofe Owerri to Akara, and Tuwo Masara to Edikaikong.
Supporting Nigerian musicians on YouTube
Today YouTube announced a commitment to support emerging talent in Nigeria. In the initial phase, YouTube is teaming up with Nigerian music star, Mr. Eazi and the emPawa initiative to support 10 emerging Nigerian music artists to build their craft, increase their fanbase and connect with the world through YouTube.
Launched by Mr. Eazi, emPawa Africa empowers the next generation of African artists, equipping them with the tools, knowledge, network and investment they need to become independent music entrepreneurs. So far, emPawa has supported 22 Nigerian artists to provide training to build their skills through digital platforms such as YouTube.
