Google Translate Camera Mode Now Works in Many More Languages
Whenever I go abroad, I always try to act like a local, including speaking the local language whenever I can. In some countries it works great, in others I can’t help but be awkward.
One of the tools that I use quite often is Google Translate. Last month I was able to have a full conversation with a taxi driver in Sicily using the app, and it came in handy an infinite number of times when I needed to translate a word or two that I didn’t understand on street signs or on the menu.
Another feature that I use quite often is the camera. With an iOS and Android app, you can take a picture of something like a food menu and get instant translation, often in AI right above that menu, of what is being said.
This is quite impressive and can make you look significantly less touristy when in a country where your language skills are below average.
This week Google announced support for several other languages, notably Arabic, Thai, Vietnamese, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marty, Nepali, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.
This list complements the already quite extensive list of supported languages (you can see them all here ). If you are traveling to a country where one of them is spoken, or you are just trying to translate a document, this might be a good thing for your phone.