Last year, the company released an Android app called Bolo to help kids in India learn to read. The app, which is in early access, taps into Google's speech recognition and text-to-speech tech to understand how well kids are reading aloud. A virtual reading buddy named Diya provides visual and verbal encouragement. If a kid is struggling to pronounce a word or sentence, they can tap on Diya for help. The app will also recommend difficulty levels for stories and games based on reading performance.

Google has kept its education initiatives, ranging from Chromebooks for schools to teaching software, within the confines of the classroom. "Bolo" (Hindi for "speak") is essentially a reading assistant for elementary school children that harnesses Google's speech recognition and text-to-speech smarts. Kids can read through a mix of Hindi and English stories with the help of an in-app learning assistant, who appears as a young girl named "Diya." She offers tips and corrections and can even translate Hindi words into English. The app supports multiple users and works offline in order to avoid connectivity issues in rural areas -- while Google works on getting those regions online through WiFi hotspots in remote train stations.