If you need to read a document or talk to someone in another language, a good translator would be the best help, and fortunately, thanks to technology it is possible to have it, literally, in your pocket. And, applications have been developed that can help you translate almost anything quickly and easily, and that’s where Google Translate takes the lead.
So if you are not yet familiar with this fantastic and useful application, you don’t have to worry because you have come to the right place. Here we will tell you everything about Google Translate, what it is and how to use it. So keep reading to the end.
What is Google Translate
There are many translators and applications to learn languages or to translate documents online, but few are capable of offering as many options and features as Google Translate. It is an app, available for both Android and iOS devices, that can translate dozens of languages, either by text, image or voice; just type or speak in the app and you will get the result immediately. It even allows you to point, using your smartphone, to a sign or menu written in a foreign language to see a live translation.
You can translate text in over 100 different languages, view image translations in over 90 languages, translate bilingual conversations simultaneously in 43 languages, and even translate freehand text in 95 languages. Offline translations are also available for many languages, and you can also save translated words and phrases for future use. Beyond English and Spanish, it supports other languages such as French, Italian, German, Swedish, Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Arabic, Russian, Hebrew, and Yiddish.
How to get started with Google Translate
Learning to use Google Translate is not too complicated, just a small and simple configuration is enough to get started. Here we detail the steps to download and start using Google Translate:
- Download the Google Translate application from Google Play or the App Store, as the case may be.
- After downloading, you need to configure Google Translate. When you open the translator for the first time, the app will ask you to choose your main language and the language you translate most often.
- Now, hit the down arrow icon and choose your main language.
- Then, press the down arrow icon again, but this time to choose the language to which you will translate most frequently.
- To download both languages for offline use, simply leave the Translate offline option checked . If any of the languages you have selected is not available for download, it will say Not available offline.
- To finish, click on the Done option.
- If you want to download a language, by default you must be connected to a WiFi network.
Now you can simply enter the text you want to translate and the application will do the work for you, offering you the result in just seconds, since speed is precisely one of the main advantages of this application.
How to translate images with Google Translate
Another interesting feature of Google Translate is its ability to translate text into an image through your mobile camera. All you have to do is choose the source and target languages, then press the camera icon and point it at the image with the text written in the source language.
Once the app has a moment to recognize the text, it is translated into the target language and can be viewed directly on the screen. Of course, you must bear in mind that if you want to translate images with your camera in all the supported languages, you will have to have a device that has an autofocus camera and a dual-core processor with ARMv7.