How Google Translate Can Be A Basic But Must-Have Mobile App For Foreign Travels

Travels to foreign lands are often laced with anxiety about the local language. Though countries do offer the courtesy of putting up banners that have the content mentioned in English as well, you might be out of luck in regions that may not extend such a welcome.

Learning the new language might not be an option always. But after working and travelling in regions in Asia, the Middle East and Europe it is exceptionally annoying to feel lost and unable to ask for directions. Interestingly, one of the toughest tasks is figuring out the local food menu and ordering something that won’t ruin your trip.

Though there are many options for the smartphone users that help in translation, Google’s own product, Google Translate is by far one of the simplest, if not the best, options out there. Google Translate is very easy to use and more importantly comes pre-installed in many of the devices as part of the GApps package. Moreover, with the recent advances and products made by Google with wearable technology, on-the-fly translation has become a reality.

Though one of the highlights of the recent innovations is of course Google Glasses that has inbuilt camera to recognize characters and offer quick translations, not all have access to Google Glass, despite Google offering a golden opportunity earlier this year. Nonetheless, Google does have an equally potent substitute in the form of Google Glasses that uses phone’s inbuilt camera instead of Google Glasses for translation. Google Translate then takes over and uses its image to text conversion to be able to read signs/menus, reported FT.

Additionally, one can even use Google Now, a serious competitor to Apple’s Siri to translate printed text. But Google Now doesn’t actually translate, but relies on Google Translate instead. Additionally, Google Translate, coupled with Google Now can do pretty nifty things when in a foreign location. Some of the features that reveal themselves when these two are used together are, currency conversion, basic calculation, conversions of measurement systems, etc., reported Fluent In 3 Months.

Google Translate has even evolved to become a personal translator that fits right in the palm of your hand. Provided you have a good smartphone with a powerful microphone, Google Translate can even offer ‘Voice To Voice’ translations. Moreover Google is even teaching its Translate platform to understand phrases, proverbs and local slang, reported Gizmodo.

Google Translate may not be as powerful as some of the other paid options like Babbel, Durlingo or other supportive platforms like Anki, Jibbigo and others, Google Translate, when combined with other offerings from the search giant, will help you easily survive in a foreign nation with letterings that just don’t make sense.

[Image Credit | Google]