PhonePe’s Indus Appstore Launches Voice Search Feature In 10 Indian Languages

Fintech major PhonePe has introduced an AI-powered voice search feature for 10 Indian languages on its Android app marketplace Indus Appstore.

Using the new features, users of Indus Appstore can browse for apps available in Indian regional languages like Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil, and Telugu, apart from English, the app marketplace said in a statement.

Reasoning the requirement of the feature, the company said that traditional text-based search in regional languages poses numerous challenges for users, including the need for specialised keyboards and complex character compositions. 

The app marketplace added that the new feature would also help app developers as it is proven to boost app installs.

It is pertinent to note that the feature update is a part of Indus Appstore’s regular update plans, which will see new features getting added on the app marketplace every 10 days. Apart from voice search, a new feature on video-led app discovery is also in the pipeline.

“With 82% of smartphone users engaging in voice-activated technology, integration of Indian languages has been the strongest growth driver for tech across the six-to-sixty age spectrum. The user-centric feature positions Indus Appstore at the forefront of transformative Voice Technology that is the need of the decade,” Indus Appstore cofounder and CPO Akash Dongre said in the statement. 

The development comes close on the heels of Indus Appstore announcing that its user base crossed the 1 Mn threshold within days of its launch. As of March 18, 45% of its users hailed from Tier-II cities.  

To increase the adoption of the app marketplace, PhonePe forged partnerships with smartphone manufacturers Nokia and Lava recently. It also claimed to be in talks with several other major smartphone manufacturers. On the back of these collaborations, the company aims to get Indus Appstore pre-installed on 250-300 Mn smartphones by the end of this calendar year. 

PhonePe officially launched Indus Appstore in February to challenge Google’s dominance in the Android app marketplace space. The app store, which was launched with an “India focus”, supports 12 regional languages and will operate on a zero-commission model for app developers till March 2024.

At the time of the launch, the company claimed that the platform hosted more than 2 Lakh apps across 45 categories. Several Indian brands, including Zomato, Myntra, Domino’s, Flipkart, Dream11, and Swiggy, are available on Indus Appstore.

Meanwhile, the Walmart-owned fintech major has infused over INR 800 Cr into its subsidiaries over the last year. It had acquired the parent entity of Indus Appstore in May 2022 for $90 Mn. 

Founded by Rakesh Deshmukh, Akash Dongre and Sudhir Bangarambandi, Indus OS’ App Bazaar was pre-installed on all Samsung devices and had also partnered with Indian original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). In 2022, it claimed to have a total of 200 Mn users, with a record of 2.5 Bn installs.

As per a report by the Broadband India Forum, the homegrown app economy could potentially be worth nearly 12% of India’s GDP by 2030.