Google launched a new app, Read Along, that aims to help elementary school students practice their reading skills and stay educationally engaged amid school closures due to coronavirus. The new Android app is based on Google’s existing application, Bolo, which launched in India last year with a catalog of read-along stories in both English and Hindi. The updated and rebranded version is now globally available with support for nine languages.
Like Bolo, Read Along leverages Google’s speech recognition and text-to-speech to help kids learn to read.
The app includes a built-in reading assistant named Diya. As kids read aloud, Diya detects if the child is struggling with a passage and can jump in with positive reinforcement or help. At any time, the child can ask Diya to help them read a sentence or pronounce a word they don’t know.
The app doesn’t include advertising or in-app purchases, either. Parents can opt to connect to the internet if they want to download additional stories, but there isn’t a charge.
At launch, Read Along offers around 500 stories and the catalog is continually expanded with new books.
The application has been available in over 180 countries. Parents can choose from nine languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, and Urdu. Google plans on increasing the number of languages the app comes in and the number of countries the app is available in based on the feedback they receive on this early access version.
The app is a free download on Google Play for children ages 5 and up.