Google translate app afrikaans

An updated Google Translate application enables smartphones to translate signs, menus and more into English. The California-based Internet titan is hoping that, along with making it easier for people to understand one another on their travels, Google Translate will serve as a useful tool for teachers, medical personnel, police and others with important roles in increasingly multi-lingual communities. Photo: AFP/Glenn Chapman

Google Translate Camera tool can now translate Afrikaans into more than 100 languages

Thanks to the Google Translate Camera tool, it’s as easy as pointing your phone’s camera to the text and Google does the rest.

Google translate app afrikaans

An updated Google Translate application enables smartphones to translate signs, menus and more into English. The California-based Internet titan is hoping that, along with making it easier for people to understand one another on their travels, Google Translate will serve as a useful tool for teachers, medical personnel, police and others with important roles in increasingly multi-lingual communities. Photo: AFP/Glenn Chapman

Google are rolling out updates to it’s Google translate app. A lot of people aren’t aware that built right into their Google experience at the moment is the ability to translate your world as you move through it.

As South Africans, most of us are multilingual. Unfortunately for us though, the languages we know are of limited value when travelling overseas.

For many, Google’s Translate app has been a life saver in allowing users to learn about their surroundings, communicate with the locals, and stay safe. It’s being touted as the most important travel app at the moment.

How does the Google Translate Camera tool work

Having not played with the app for a while, I was pleasantly surprised to find how much has changed. The interface is cleaner and still does everything it’s supposed to do, but the Google folk added real-time camera translation.

The app translates text you point your camera at, and it literally changes what you see when looking at your screen.

Moreover, it translates the text using the same font. We’re living in the future.

It’s the kind of augmented reality (AR) that might not be as popular as those that make you look like a cat or a fluffly bunny.

However, it is probably one of the most useful applications of AR you’ll come across.

Google has already trialed real-time speech translation for restaurants and hotels and could be headed to Google Home and Hub devices first. So far, colour us impress.

So it’s not really a stretch to say that we’re basically a hop, skip and a jump away from a Star Trek-like future where we all speak whatever language we like. We’ll have one of those implants that does all the translating for us on the fly.

New languages added to the Google Translate Camera

The new update will allow Google to translate 60 additional languages, which include Malay, Vietnamese and Arabic. Also, before you only had the option of translating to or from English.

With the update, you’ll be able to translate to any of the more than a 100 languages Google Translate supports. So if you need to translate from Arabic to Spanish – or more usefully, from Zulu to Afrikaans – Google has you covered.

You’ll also be able to set translators up to automatically detect the language it’s looking at. This is particularly useful when moving through areas that have multiple similar languages like Spanish and Portuguese.

Powered by Neural Machine Translation

The new translator features are powered by Neural Machine Translation (NMT) for the first time. It promises to give more accurate and natural translations for text.

NMT can reduce errors in translation for certain languages by 55% to 85%. Most languages are available to download to your device so you can use the feature without being online.

However, Google promises higher quality translations when not connected to the internet. Other changes were aimed at making the user experience more intuitive and easier to use and read.

Watch: Google Translate in action