Google adds Tap to Translate text feature for Android
NEW YORK—Google has just added new capabilities to its Translate app that the company says will makes it simpler to translate text right inside into any app you use on an Android phone. The new feature is called Tap to Translate, and it comes as part of the newly launched Google Translate 5.0.
Google’s Translate’s product leader, Barak Turovsky indicated in a blog post that Tap to Translate will work for all 103 of Google Translate’s languages on any Android phone running the Jelly Bean version of the operating system or later.
According to the post, of the half-billion plus people who use the Google Translate around the planet, 9 of 10 live outside the U.S, in places like India, Brazil, Indonesia, and Thailand. “We know millions of you painstakingly copy-paste text between Google Translate and other apps,” Turovsky writes. “Now, you can just copy the text of a chat, comment, song lyric, etc. in whichever app you’re using, and a translation will pop up a right there -- no need to switch apps.”
Google added other new features: Offline Mode now works on iOS devices (in addition to Android), and won’t hog too much smartphone storage when you’re trying to translate something in an area without coverage. Google says it shrunk the size of the language packages by 90%, to about 25 MB each.
Google Translate now supports offline packages for 52 languages; the Filipino language is the latest addition. The Tap to Translate feature works offline too.
Lastly, Google added Word Lens in Chinese, the 29th language to take advantage of this “instant visual translation.” Basically, you point your phone at a menu, sign, package or other printed text, and you can see a translation on the screen. Google says Word Lens reads both to and from English, for both Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and also works offline.
You can see Google Translate in action below.
Google says the updates to the Android and iOS versions of the Translate app will roll out over the next few days.
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