Google for India 2024: New AI, Payment and Health Features Unveiled

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

At its 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, listings could include a phone number that could be tapped in order to place a call. Google Maps has also been updated with support for real-time alerts for flooding and fog, according to the search giant.

The company is bringing support for personal loans and gold loans on Google Pay, it’s 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 lakh.

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

As part of its DigiKavach initiative, Google says that it saved users from scams worth Rs. 13,000 crore and displayed over 41 million warnings to users in 2023. Over 170 million fraudulent reviews were automatically detected and removed on Google Maps, according to the company. Google says Android users in India will soon be protected with a new enhanced fraud protection feature that prevent users from sideloading malicious apps that request access to critical permissions.

Google also showcased new health features integrated by the company’s partners, such as Apollo Hospitals, which is using deep-learning models from the company to improve diagnostic services. The company’s AI tools are also enabling support for tuberculosis and cancer screening in several regions — at no cost to patients. 

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