Google has announced major updates to its Google Translate app for iOS and Android version, adding 20 new languages to the app. The expansion of the instant visual translation function of the app now brings a total of 27 languages supported.
Both the camera translation and conversation mode translation has been improved. The camera translation feature of the app allows users to point their phone camera at a sign or words written in a different language. The words will then be auto-translated replacing the foreign language with the user's preferred language.
The conversational translation feature of the Google Translate app helps users talk to a person using his desired language by automatically translating the words verbally to them. The users can listen to the other person's response and translate it back to his own language.
By simply tapping the mic, the user can speak in a selected language. Tapping the mic again will allow the app to recognize which language is being spoken.
Initially, the app only supports seven languages for the real-time translation which are English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
The expansion allowed the addition of new languages which include Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, Croatian, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Filipino, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Slovak, Thai, Turkish and Ukrainian.
The Google camera mode translation supports 37 different languages. The tech company made the translations even smoother and faster so that more people around the world will no longer be hindered by the language barrier to communicate with others.
The product lead for Google Translate Barak Turovsky revealed on a blog post the advantage of the updated translation app.
"In many emerging markets, slow mobile networks can make it challenging to access many online tools -- so if you live in an area with unreliable mobile networks, our other update today is for you."
The multinational company believes they still have more tasks to do to eliminate the language barrier. Only 20% of the population speaks English so translation apps are necessary in better communication.
