When Google Translate came to Android, sometime last year, it did manage to bring the ease of communicating in the language best understood with the comfort of one's smartphone. However, earlier in the year, it introduced Conversation Mode, albeit as an experiment. Conversation mode, claimed Google took routine translation to the next level. This feature allowed users to speak directly into their smartphone's microphone, and the Translate app would translate the spoken language and would read it aloud. Then, the person on the other end, would speak into their microphone and the Translation app would translate it for you and read it aloud. However, at the outset, Google had enabled this feature in only English and Spanish.
However, now, an official post on the Google blog confirms that the search giant has added as many as 14 more global languages to the Conversation mode feature. The feature is now available in - Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian and Turkish, taking the total number of supported languages to an impressive 16.
Speaking into your smartphone's microphone
The post further adds that the feature is still in its early stages, and hence issues like background noise and regional accents may affect the work of the feature. But, with more people using the feature, Google assures timely updates and improvements. The feature also allows users to correct the text they want to translate, before it is translated. For eg: words like train, drain, rain or any other such similar sounding words when spoken into the microphone may prompt wrong translations. But now, users can correct the text, if any errors occur. The update also includes a magnifier, using which translated text can be zoomed in for better viewing.
Google has also optimized the Translate app for Android smartphones or tablets with larger screens for easy reading. Google Translate, itself offers support for over 63 languages, voice-input for 17 of these 63 languages and text-to-speech for another 24 languages.
Receive the translated text, Japanese in this case
Google, signs off by saying that adding more language support to the Conversation mode is definitely in the pipeline. Google Translate is available for download on the Android Market. To better understand the Conversation mode feature, and see how it could work for you, watch the video below
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