Does Google Assistant handle any translations for synonyms/values given in a specific language?

Question

I am curious as to how Google Assistant handles synonyms/values given in a specific language within a trait. E.g.:

{
"availableFanSpeeds": {
"speeds": [{
  "speed_name": "S1",
  "speed_values": [{
    "speed_synonym": ["low", "speed 1", ... ],
    "lang": "en" } , … ]
  },
  {
  "speed_name": "S2",
  "speed_values": [{
    "speed_synonym": ["high", "speed 2", ... ],
     "lang": "en" } , … ]
  }, ...
  ],
"ordered": true
},
"supportsFanSpeedPercent": true,
"reversible": true
}

Does it try to map any translations automatically?

For example I noticed for FanSpeed that 'low' and 'high' is understood in a different language even though specified as part of the FanSpeed trait only in English. Yet with the ArmDisarm trait a mode called 'away' is not understood in a different language when only given in English.

This seems inconsistent - is there any pattern to understand when Google attempts to automatically translate a mode/synonym/value versus not?

Answer 1

Google Assistant handles translations at the trait level for device types and traits for Smart Home ecosystem. Natural Language Understanding (NLU) is a very complex subject, and Google is always looking to improve their systems. If you can create a request in the bug tracker we can make sure these cases are covered issuetracker.google.com/issues/…

Depending on the language, it can also be possible that the command being given for the ArmDisarm was in a language that is not supported by the Smart Home's device traits.You can check the list of languages supported by the device traits at https://developers.google.com/assistant/smarthome/traits#supported-languages