Today, Google released its newest version of Google Translate, an app that allows users to break the language barriers and translate 90 different languages. The update allows users to translate text into foreign languages using the camera on their smartphone in real-time.
While not all 90 languages are available for real-time translation, the languages that are available include Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, and Russian. iOS users can also take advantage of Google’s real-time language translation, since Google also made some major updates to the original Google Translate app on iOS.
In addition to real-time translation via your camera, Google made further updates that allow conversations smoother, as you can see in the video below:
[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAip9AIqZ7I[/embedyt]
So the Google Translate app looks pretty simple, right? While the the app is easy to use and navigate, I did find the live translate feature difficult to use when reading a large amount of small print. Mainly, I found it difficult to stay steady (maybe I’m just a shaky person), which would not allow the app to pick up all the words on the page. When watching different videos, I see this feature being used on signs and larger print, which I found to work really well. Since I am not bilingual, I am not able to accurately comment on the translation piece. However, our bilingual co-founder Ryan Egan was able to test it out. His comments below:
The vocal recognition does a decent job and the translation is on par with expectations in Google Translate. It does not handle contextual word meanings extremely well, but it gets the job in at least getting the message across. Just don’t use too much slang and you should be fine.
Overall I feel the updates Google made to the app added a great feature and more functionality. For our bilingual readers, let us know what you think. Do you feel that the translation updates work well? Let us know in the comment section below.