Habari Kenya: Angelus now replies in Swahili

In Nairobi, a conversation often moves from English to Swahili, then to Sheng, the way people talk on the street. A customer writes "Niko na swali, bei ni ngapi?" to ask for a price. They expect an answer in their language, not in ours.

Starting this month, Angelus replies to them in Swahili.

Why Swahili

Swahili is spoken all over East Africa: in Kenya, in Tanzania, in Uganda, and as far as eastern Congo. In Kenya, it is the national language, and one of the two official languages along with English.

For a shop in Nairobi or a salon in Mombasa, replying in Swahili means talking the way its customers talk. Trust comes faster.

Why Kenya first

In Kenya, the phone is at the center of everyday life. People use it to pay, to order, and to book appointments by message. WhatsApp is often the first place a customer contacts a business.

Small businesses there face the same thing as everywhere else: lots of messages, too few people to answer them all, especially in the evening and on weekends.

What Angelus can do in Swahili today

• It understands Swahili written the way people speak it: shortened, spelled by sound, or mixed with English.
• It replies in writing in Swahili, politely, without switching to another language.
• It understands voice messages, in Swahili too.
• It understands time the Swahili way. "Saa nne asubuhi" means 10 a.m.: hours are counted from sunrise. An appointment written this way lands at the right time.

All of this happens on WhatsApp, in writing, and the assistant understands voice messages. Calls are in French or English for now.

What's next

Swahili joins French and English. Other languages from the continent will follow, one at a time, when they are ready.

Karibu Angelus.