Google has announced that Google Assistant will now be available in Hindi, the official language of India and the third most spoken language in the world behind Mandarin and English.

Google Assistant in Hindi works the same way that it does in other languages. Users can talk to it in Hindi but it is smart enough to parse the occasional English word in the query that is common in most spoken Hindi today. As is usual, the Assistant will get better the more you use it.

As of now, the feature is available on Android devices running Android 6.0 and above but will be coming soon to Android 5.0, Android Oreo (Go Edition) and iOS 9.1 and above.

Unfortunately, the process to change the Assistant language remains as idiotic as ever. You can't have your phone language be English and the Assistant language be Hindi. To change the Assistant to Hindi, you have to change your entire phone's language to Hindi. This has always been the case with other languages as well and makes no sense. Apple puts no such restrictions with Siri on iOS neither does Microsoft with Cortana. If Google wants people to take these language selections seriously, it has to let them set the Assistant language independently