How to use Google Translate as a real-time interpreter

Chances are, you have dozens of apps on your phone, and it’s not easy to keep up with every feature added to each of those apps over time, like, for example, the voice-in-time translation feature. It’s true that you can use Google Translate within the application Android one of two iOS,

If you’re chatting with someone in a foreign language you’re not fluent in (or don’t even understand the basics of), you no longer need to type sentences of text and wait for a response. The instant translate option means you can place your phone between two people while they’re talking and translate their speech between languages ​​as needed in real time.

It’s all based on clever AI technology that Google has been developing for years. Although it is not completely infallible, it can help you understand yourself and be understood in return. Whether finding your way to a train station or getting details of a customer’s order, you never know when this feature might come in handy.

How real-time translation works

If you have the Google Translate app installed on your phone, here’s almost everything you need to get started. However keep in mind that this feature requires Internet access and can consume a lot of data. It is especially important to keep this in mind. If you’re abroad, where finding a Wi-Fi hotspot may not be as easy and where you may have to pay more for mobile data.

Google calls this real-time translation functionality the Transcription feature and it supports eight languages: English, French, German, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Thai. If you are trying to chat in a different language, you are unsuccessful, or maybe you can try. Show the list to the person you’re chatting with and see what else they can talk about.

Load Google Translate, and you’ll see a Conversation In the lower left corner. If it is grayed out and not available, it is because the currently selected input language does not support transcription. Tap the box on the left (top) Conversation) Select the language you want to translate from, and the box on the right to select the language to translate into; Please note that auto language detection is not supported with this feature.

With your languages ​​selected, tap Conversation And you’ll be ready to start talking. There are three buttons at the bottom of the screen: You can choose to manually select each language in turn when the corresponding speaker is ready to speak, in which case tap the button labeled the corresponding language. Alternatively, select car So that the application can listen to different voices, without the need for manual selection.

Translation options and extras

As you speak in two languages ​​during a conversation, you’ll notice that a text transcription of what you’re saying also appears on the screen. This is an easy way to check that you are being understood correctly, and you can make changes to the input message by tapping on the text and editing it.

Spoken output from the Google Translate app is also displayed on the screen; You can’t edit it, but you can play the speaker. icon next to it for you to read this or the new one. If you need to copy the transcript text elsewhere the standard text selection options apply here: Press and hold a block of text to select it on Android or iOS.

There’s no speak option when it comes to the transcription feature in Google Translate, but you can tap the icon button (top right) to display an information card written in the language you’re translating. The idea is that you show this card to a person who speaks another language so they can understand how the translation function works.

Return to the main Google Translate screen. There are a few options you can play with, which you can access by tapping on your Google Account profile photo (top right) and then selecting Settings. You can change the regional accent of the voice used and change the speed. Also delete voice feedback and your Google Translate history.