NEW DELHI: In an effort to bring down language barriers, Google on Wednesday announced several updates to its Translate App. Starting today, users in Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu can experience offline translations and instant visual translation in their preferred language.
Google Translate has also added support for conversation mode in regional languages including Bengali and Tamil.
Conversation mode is a feature that lets users have a bilingual conversation with someone, simply by talking to the Google Translate app. To activate, simply tap the mic to start speaking in a selected language, then tap the mic again, and the Google Translate app will automatically recognize which of the two languages are being spoken, letting you have a fluid conversation.
With Google Translate, users can easily turn their phone into a powerful translation tool, whether for studies, business, travel or work. Offline support enables Indian language users to translate a word or sentence even when they are not connected to the internet.
To make use of offline translations capabilities, you will need to download the specific language pack from the Translate app when connected to the internet. Just open the Translate app, make the language choice on either side of the screen and then tap the download button. To translate between two languages offline, you’ll need to download both language packs.
The Translate app already lets the user use camera mode to snap a photo of English text and get a translation for it in these languages. Now with Word Lens feature, Google has taken it to next level letting users instantly translate text using their camera—so it’s way easier for speakers of local Indian languages to understand English street signs in the city or decide what to order from a restaurant menu. Word Lens is powered by machine learning, using computer vision to distinguish between letters on an image.
To get started, open the Translate app, point your camera at an English sign or text and you’ll see the translated text in your language overlaid on your screen—even if you don't have an Internet or data connection.
All features announced today are already available in Hindi on the Google Translate app, and have started to roll out in the additional Indian languages both on Android and iOS.
Google also recently announced voice input support for eight additional Indian languages, including Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. With these new announcements, Google reaffirms their commitment to enable more Indian users to access information around them using their own language.