Google is increasingly becoming a serious competitor for interpreters. With Google Translate it is now possible to have complete speeches translated simultaneously. This makes it easy to hold conversations with people of foreign origin without the language barrier getting in the way.
The new “Transcribe” feature
We can certainly all still remember the first years of the Google Translater. The result was sometimes confusing translations. Now, thanks to Google Translate, it should even be possible to have complete speeches translated simultaneously. According to a blog entry by Google, this is made possible by the new “Transcribe” feature of Google Translate. This feature will be available for download in the next few days. Once the feature has been added to the app, you can start immediately. Here you can specify the language into which the speech should be translated. All you need to do is to press a button.
First limited to eight languages
The functionality of the new feature is very simple. As soon as you use it, the microphone of the smartphone is switched on. Now the person opposite can speak into the microphone. Then what is said is translated into the desired target language and output via the speakers. Since this feature is still new, the choice of languages is still limited. At the beginning there are eight different languages to choose from. So you can choose between German, English, Spanish, French, Thai, Portuguese, Russian and Hindi.
Additional optimizations are in planning
Google has a valuable iron in the fire with the “Transcribe” feature. Accordingly, Google wants to continue working on optimizations of Google Translate. The goal is to make Google Translate a suitable tool for a variety of situations. However, the optimizations may also be necessary after initial tests. After all, the “Transcribe” feature is currently said to work best if you are talking to the person you are talking to in a quiet room without a lot of background noise. At best, only one person should talk at a time. As a result, the app is likely to be quickly overwhelmed by fast conversations or heated discussions. However, Google should be able to overcome these problems with the appropriate optimizations.
Users keep the “Conversation Mode”
Fans of the Conversation Mode don’t have to worry about the popular mode. This feature enables conversation with people all over the world. There are no language barriers because Google immediately translates the text into the desired target language. Unfortunately we don’t know when the new Transcribe feature will be released on iOS devices. But Google will certainly comment on this soon.
