Amazon Polly adds bilingual Indian English/Hindi language support

Amazon Polly is an AWS service that turns text into lifelike speech. We’re excited to announce new Hindi language support and the release of our first bilingual voice. Aditi is a female voice that speaks Hindi and Indian English fluently.

Let’s hear Aditi introduce herself in both Indian English and Hindi. Listen to the Hindi introduction:

Listen now Voiced by Amazon Polly

Listen to the Indian English introduction:

Listen now Voiced by Amazon Polly

Used by over 500 million people worldwide, Hindi is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Aditi was first released as an Indian English voice to the Amazon Polly text-to-speech portfolio in November 2017. In response to customer requests for Hindi language support and a bilingual voice, Aditi provides high-quality speech synthesis in both Hindi and Indian English.

Hindi and Indian English are two of the official languages of India, and there is a high demand for Indian English/Hindi content in all genres of voice applications, from explainer videos to e-Learning, corporate narration, and more. For example, Duolingo is a popular language-learning platform with a network of more than 200 million users worldwide. With over 80 courses for 31 languages, the application has made learning simple and fun by gamifying the entire experience. Duolingo recently unveiled its latest Hindi course for English speakers, which was developed using the new Aditi voice.

Natalie Glance, VP of engineering at Duolingo, explained, “In launching Duolingo’s new Hindi course, it was important to find a text-to-speech solution that would help our users learn the language as effectively as possible. Amazon Polly’s Aditi Hindi voice fit our needs perfectly because of its exceptional quality and natural-sounding voice, and we are looking forward to continuing to work with Amazon Polly on more TTS solutions in the future.”

Customers in India are also excited about the new bilingual Indian English/Hindi voice. One of India’s largest insurance marketplaces, PolicyBazaar.com, is already using Amazon Polly with their in-house interactive voice response (IVR) calling service with much success. The company is looking to innovate further with the new release. “Amazon Polly’s launch of Hindi language support is a real game-changer for us. We are already using the Hindi capability for our IVR and automated outbound updates to customers, and we saw an increased engagement with these messages. Soon, we will be releasing a Hindi voicebot that will enhance our customer experience further by providing 24×7 service,” said Ashish Gupta, PolicyBazaar CTO.

With the addition of the Hindi language support, the Amazon Polly portfolio now includes 53 voices across 26 languages. For the full list of text-to-speech voices, see Voices in Amazon Polly. Give it a try!

For a list of Regions where Amazon Polly is available, see the AWS Region table. First-time Amazon Polly customers can try the service by using the AWS Free Tier.

We also encourage you to share your feedback with us! Let us know which additional language support you’d like us to offer or describe the voice you’d like us to release next. Your input helps shape our roadmap so that we can better meet your needs. If you have questions or suggestions, leave a comment.

About the Author

Binny Peh is a Sr. Product Marketing Manager for AWS machine learning solutions. In her spare time, she indulges in too much television and is an aspiring foodie. Binny’s glass is always half-full, and she believes in the power of positive thinking.