Google hosted its annual Google for India event today virtually where it announced a couple of new upcoming features for Google Pay, Google Career Certificates, and financial assistance for micro-enterprises. Another key announcement from the event is an upcoming Google Assistant feature that will enable Indians to book a vaccination slot on the country's Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network platform (COWIN) without having to fill out a web page form.

Google says it has worked closely with COWIN to integrate booking with the Assistant and will roll it out in early 2022. In addition to English and Hindi support, the booking can also be done in local languages such as Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu. The company further explains that this is its first-ever Assistant-enabled, end-to-end vaccine booking flow.

To get started, you can start typing or saying "covid vaccine" on Google Search and then tap on "Register easily with Google Assistant." After selecting this option, Google Assistant will pop up that will help you to book a vaccination slot. The first step is to sign up on the COWIN platform or sign in if you already have an account.

Once you're signed in, the Assistant will ask for a few personal details like your name, your ID card number, and date of birth. Next up, the screen will prompt you to enter a PIN code or district to search for a vaccination opportunity close to you. You can use on-screen filters such as age, cost, and vaccine to get the desired results. Finally, you can book the vaccination slot by selecting your preferred date and time. You'll then get an SMS from COWIN with all the important details that are required for vaccination.

While the COWIN portal will get you the same result, Google is aiming this feature at those who are unfamiliar with using a phone or a PC and those who are unable to read. Google Assistant will read out every requirement out loud so that the user can understand what needs to be entered on that particular screen.

With Indians using Google’s voice queries nearly double as much as global users on an everyday basis, Google hopes this feature will take off when it goes live early next year, and help speed up vaccine distribution in the country.