source: techcrunch ai: amazon is testing alexa+ in india with hindi support
level: business
amazon is expanding its conversational ai assistant alexa+ to india, starting with a beta test for hindi language support. the company sent emails to select customers, asking them to fill out a hindi form by june 22 to join the program. the email noted the beta software may have bugs, inaccurate information, or mispronunciations of local nuances. amazon confirmed the test but did not provide further comment or a launch date.
alexa first launched in india with english in 2017 and added hindi in 2019. now, with over 600 million hindi speakers, amazon aims to serve users who often mix hindi and english. voice interaction is seen as a key driver for ai adoption in india, and companies are exploring ways to make assistants more natural for local users. alexa+ was first announced in 2025 and became available to all u.s. users in february 2026, later expanding to countries like the u.k., canada, brazil, mexico, italy, and germany with local context support.
the new alexa+ uses generative ai to enable more conversational interactions compared to the original alexa. amazon offers it free to prime members, while others pay a monthly fee. the india beta test marks another step in amazon's global rollout, as it seeks to refine the assistant for diverse languages and cultural contexts. feedback from hindi-speaking users will help improve accuracy and usability before a wider launch.
why it matters: multilingual ai assistants can expand access to technology for non-english speakers, and testing in india's large market could shape how voice ai handles code-mixed languages globally.
source: techcrunch ai: amazon is testing alexa+ in india with hindi support