Use Google Assistant’s Translator Mode to Speak to Someone in Their Language
The next time you want to talk to someone who speaks a different language, you can do it using just your phone.
Google today started rolling out translate mode in Google Assistant on iOS and Android devices. This feature allows you to have regular conversations with someone who speaks a different language, and the app translates what you both say in real time. Since it’s built into the Assistant, you also don’t need to install Translator or another app on your phone.
To use this feature, you can say “Ok Google, be my German / French / Italian translator” or “Hey Google, help me speak Japanese” and your phone (when it has this feature) will launch Google Translate and start listening to your conversation.
At the present time the translator mode is available for the following languages :
•Arab
•Czech
• Danish
•Dutch
•English
• Filipino (Tagalog)
• Finnish
•French
•Deutsch
• Greek
•Hindi
•Hungarian
•Indonesian
• italian
•Japanese
•Korean
• Mandarin
•Norwegian
• Polish
•Portuguese
•Romanian
•Russian
•Slovak
•Spanish language
• Swedish
• Thai
•Turkish
•Ukrainian
•Vietnamese
Google has tested this feature with concierge and check-in counters at several hotels, such as Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas and Hyatt Regency at San Francisco Airport, as well as Google Home devices and smart displays.
This is similar to the Conversation feature already available in Google Translate, but slightly smoother.
As a regular user of this chat feature, I’ll also point out that in order for it to work successfully, you’ll want to try to keep these conversations as quiet as possible and use simple language whenever possible.
If you’ve ever used any AI transcription tool, you’ll realize that it has its limitations. These translations are handled by a computer, not a human. The easier you make it for a computer, the better it will handle your translation. Speaking quickly, using difficult language, or speaking in a place with a lot of background noise will give you less than stellar results.
Restrictions on the inside, this can greatly simplify the process of ordering in restaurants or figuring out what to do after you miss the train.