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Arabic Language Excluded from Google Assistant

Google Assistant. (Google)
Google Assistant. (Google)
    San Francisco, London - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Arabic Language Excluded from Google Assistant

Google Assistant. (Google)
Google Assistant. (Google)

Google intends to add more than 20 languages to its voice-command based digital assistant app by the end of this year. The voice assistant will be available in more than 30 languages by the end of 2018, but noticeably absent is Arabic.

In the next few months the Google Assistant will be able to respond by text in Danish, Dutch, Hindi, Indonesian, Norwegian, Swedish and Thai on Android phones and Apple iPhones, the CNET.com website reported.

Nick Fox, Google's vice president of product, said in a blog post that the assistant will be available in more than 30 languages, reaching 95 percent of all eligible Android phones worldwide, reported the German news agency.

The assistant currently responds in eight languages by text on Android phones: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.

Fox said Google Assistant will also gain multilingual speech later this year, allowing the assistant to understand you fluently in multiple languages, instead of just one. This feature will start with English, French and German.

"If you prefer to speak German at work, but French at home, your assistant is right there with you," he added.

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Five Astronauts Leave Space Station for Trip Back to Earth

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifts off, carrying NASA's Crew-10 astronauts to the International Space Station at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, March 14, 2025. (Reuters)
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifts off, carrying NASA's Crew-10 astronauts to the International Space Station at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, March 14, 2025. (Reuters)
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Five Astronauts Leave Space Station for Trip Back to Earth

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifts off, carrying NASA's Crew-10 astronauts to the International Space Station at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, March 14, 2025. (Reuters)
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifts off, carrying NASA's Crew-10 astronauts to the International Space Station at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, March 14, 2025. (Reuters)

After nearly five months onboard the International Space Station, an international crew of five astronauts began their descent back down to Earth on a SpaceX capsule Friday.

US astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan's Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonaut Kirill Peskov are expected to spend more than 17 hours in the capsule before splashing down off California's coast at 1533 GMT on Saturday.

Their return will mark the end of the 10th crew rotation mission to the space station under NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which was created to succeed the Space Shuttle era by partnering with private industry.

The Dragon capsule of billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX company detached from the International Space Station (ISS) at 2215 GMT on Friday.

The capsule's dizzying drop back down to Earth will be slowed when it re-enters Earth -- and then again by huge parachutes to soften its landing.

After the capsule splashes down, it will be recovered by a SpaceX ship and hoisted aboard.

Only then will the astronauts be able to breathe Earth's air again, for the first time in months.

The astronauts, known as Crew-10, conducted numerous scientific experiments during their time on the space station, including studying plant growth and how cells react to gravity.

Their launch into space in March was heavily scrutinized because it finally allowed two US astronauts -- who had been unexpectedly stuck onboard the space station for nine months -- to return home.

When they launched in June 2024, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were only supposed to spend eight days in space on a test of the Boeing Starliner's first crewed flight.

However, the spaceship developed propulsion problems and was deemed unfit to fly back, leaving them stranded in space.

NASA announced this week that Wilmore has decided to retire after 25 years of service at the US space agency.

Last week, US astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japan's Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov boarded the ISS for a six-month mission.