Google brings special features to celebrate Tokyo 2020 Paralympics

The Olympics are not yet over and this time it’s the turn of our Paralympics athletes to shine. The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics officially opened yesterday and Google is bringing several features to the Search app and YouTube to bring updates, the latest news, and all the information that you need if you want to keep up with the games. You can catch livestreams and highlights on YouTube, get updated information from Google Search, play an interactive doodle game with Lucky the Cat, and send special GIFs created specifically for the Paralympics.

13 official Paralympic broadcasters around the world will be streaming the games on their official YouTube channels including clips and highlights. The official Paralympics Games channel will also bring you more than 1,300 hours of livestreams across 219 countries and territories. There will also be athlete interviews, behind-the-scenes videos and even better, they will have automatic captions in 13 languages. However, livestreams will only have automatic captions in English.

When you search about the Paralympics on Google Search, you will immediately see information in the knowledge panel including how your country is faring in the medals race. You can also watch daily recap videos, see photo galleries of the best ones from the day. In Trends, you can see some Search statistics about your favorite sports from the Paralympic games. They also say there’s a “fun surprise” when you search for the Paralympics although we’re not seeing it yet, unless you count the Google Doodle?

But speaking of, you can play an interactive Doodel game with Lucky the Cat where you can join a team and compete against champions in games like table tennis, archery, rugby, etc. There will be competitors with disabilities and without. Aside from the main games, there are also side quests , new levels, and “surprises” as you go through the Doodle Champion Island. The IPC and Tenor are working together to bring “heartwarming” GIFs through the Paralympics channel on Tenor.

You can also use Google Assistant to keep updated about the games. Just say things like “Hey Google, who is leading the Paralympics table” on your phone, speaker, TV, or other devices. Some questions like “Hey Google, what do you like about the Paralympics?” are available in all languages.