After the most recent update to Google’s Assistant-based speaker application, Google Home, users can now choose between three different dialects for the Spanish language. While the device has already been able to work in Spanish since very early on in development, that’s bound to be good news for Spanish speakers everywhere. Like English, the usage of words and phrases tends to change depending on the region. Although the distinctions are often more complex than just a few regional variances, Google has added support for those dialects from Spain, Mexico, and the U.S. In the application itself, the Spanish dialects are designated España, México, and EE.UU. No announcements were made with the change, so it’s difficult to say when they were added for sure or if this is a server-side change rather than an app update. In any case, new features can take some time to roll out, so users shouldn’t be too concerned if it hasn’t shown up on their handset or tablet just yet.
However, this change may go well beyond simply making the app and associated devices easier to use for a wider audience. There’s also room for speculation as to whether the changes mean that the Google Home devices will be headed to more regions in the near future. Specifically, the updated language selection options could point to a release of those devices in Mexico and Spain at some point in the coming weeks or months. Google has been rolling out its home automation and IoT assistant speakers to a growing number of world regions over the past several months. That’s in addition to adding a plethora of new features as sales have picked up.
In the meantime, accessing the newly added Spanish dialects is very straightforward. Users simply need to log into the IoT-centric application and tap the three-dash context menu at the top-right-hand side of the screen. From there, a tap on “More settings” will reveal a list of settings. Users will need to click a device under the “Devices” category and then scroll down to the “Assistant language” option under the “Voice and speech” heading. It’s worth pointing out that this should change the preferred language for Assistant across all devices, with the exception of Google Home for the smartphone itself. Changing the language preference in for the smartphone or tablet will change the language across the entire device in addition to changing the user’s universal preference.