How to translate text, voice and images

• Google Translate supports 133 languages ​​and can translate text, audio, and images.
• You can also type, dictate, or take a photo of text in a foreign language into the Google Translate app.
• Google Translate uses a system called Google Neural Machine Translation, which learns over time.

When we think of travel, we think of various Google services, such as Google Maps to plan routes and Google Flights to book trips, but it's Google Translate that helps us communicate.

With the ability to use AI to translate dozens of languages ​​via text or voice within seconds, Google Translate is one of the original translation apps and arguably one of the most popular.

Google Translate was first released in 2006. The software was widely reported to have been born out of a terrible translation of an email sent by a Korean fan to Google's founder. At the time, the company had licensed a translation service, but the message was translated as “I want a shoe of chopped raw fish. Google's leek!” This frustrating experience prompted Sergey Brin to take the reins of the company and set out to develop a better product.

Nearly two decades later, Google Translate supports a whopping 133 languages, is used by millions of people every day, and its Android app has been installed more than 1 billion times from the Google Play Store. During Google's earnings call in 2018, CEO Sundar Pichai said that Google Translate translates approximately 143 billion words every day.

Google Translate uses a system called Google Neural Machine Translation, which translates entire sentences at a time and interprets words and phrases in context. GNMT is also an end-to-end learning system, which means the system learns and improves its processes over time.

In 2023, Google announced that Google Translate will further improve its service with AI-powered features, such as providing contextual options while translating and incorporating Google Lens to translate images.

Here's everything you need to know about Google Translate and how to use it.

Is Google Translate an app?

Google Translate is available as an app for both iOS and Android devices.

When you type, write, or speak into the Google Translate app, the translation appears within seconds. Additionally, the app uses Google Lens image recognition technology to translate text from images. Simply point your smartphone camera at foreign language text (such as a menu or sign) and the translation appears instantly.

Here's how to use it:

Translate text

1. download Google Translate app for iPhone or Android.
2. At the bottom of the screen, select your input and output languages.

1. type Enter the phrase or sentence you want to translate into the text field. The phrase will be translated in real time below.

Translate an image

1. After selecting or choosing a language Detect Language, Tap camera Click the icon in the bottom right corner.

1. Just point your camera at the text you see and it will translate in real time.
2. Tap shutter icon Take a photo of the text you want to translate.
3. To translate text from a previously captured image, gallery Tap the icon and choose a photo from your iPhone's gallery. Google Translate will display the translated words overlaid on top of the text in the image.

Translation with voice

1. Tap the microphone icon Tap at the bottom of the screen to enter a sentence or phrase into the app.
2. Wait a moment for the app to translate your text, then speaker Click the button to hear the translated audio.
3. Tap speaker Click the icon to hear the translation.

1. Alternatively, Transcription Click the icon and start speaking, then you can select the transcript and copy it elsewhere.

Tip: Many languages ​​also offer offline translation, and you can even save translated words and phrases for later use.

Is Google Translate 100% accurate?

Google Translate is not 100% accurate, nor are any other automated translation services. Google Translate has made major mistakes due to technical glitches and linguistic nuances and ambiguities.

Google's accuracy also varies greatly between language pairs: Research has shown that Google Translate is 94% accurate when translating English and Spanish, but only 55% accurate when translating English and Armenian. Research has also shown that Italian and German are among the most difficult languages ​​for Google Translate.

Can I use Google Translate to translate the name?

Google Translate can help translate people's names. For example, if you enter the name “George” into Google Translate, it will return the name “Jorge” in Spanish, but be careful: the translation may not be contextually accurate and unusual names may not be recognized.

Which is better: ChatGPT or Google Translate?

Large-scale language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT already have translation capabilities and may even overtake Google Translate in the future.

Early studies have shown that ChatGPT translations have higher terminology accuracy than Google Translate translations, but Google Translate tends to outperform ChatGPT when translating less common languages. In any case, both ChatGPT and Google Translate tend to be much less accurate than actual human translators.