I wish I knew about these Google Translate features before I went on vacation

If you’re going on vacation, you’ll want to make sure you have a good translation app installed on your phone before you leave. Especially if you’re heading to a country where the locals generally don’t speak English well. This was me a month ago as I prepared to spend two weeks in Japan, the country ranked 87th (out of 113) in English language proficiency.

I’m not very good at learning new languages, especially ones that are quite far from English. So by the time I left, I had only managed to learn some basic Japanese to get by without seeming like a rude, ignorant gaijin. Fortunately Google Translate could fill this gap, and while it’s still imperfect, I’ve found that its Japanese translation skills have improved significantly over the past few years.

Google Translate was an invaluable help, especially when it came to written Japanese, but I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed with the way the app handled translation, one sentence or phrase at a time. It wasn’t until I got home that I realized that Google Translate had a number of features that I was completely missing.

Talk mode

Google Translate features in the Google app

(Image credit: Future)

One of the things I didn’t like about using Google Translate abroad is that you have to frequently exchange phone numbers between participants and adjust screen settings so that Google knows which language to translate from. If I had paid attention to the other buttons on the screen, I would have seen a talk mode button, which apparently solves this problem.

In my defense, whenever I needed to translate a real conversation, I had other things on my mind. But there is no excuse for such lack of observation, especially when the button is clearly marked. It’s actually quite awkward and you should make sure you don’t make the same mistake I did.

The conversation mode is not completely smooth, but it makes two-way conversations easier. You set up the languages, press the Conversation Mode button, and then once each participant has finished speaking, you can switch everything with the press of a button. What’s more, Google Translate keeps a record of the entire conversation in that session, so there’s always the option to check older parts of the conversation if needed.

Face to face mode

Google Translate features in the Google app

(Image credit: Future)

If you have seen translation apps to best folding phones you’ll see that they use a dual screen design very cleverly. Each participant receives their own screen, on which the spoken words are translated into their native language. This means there is no need to pass the phone to other people or get confused about who said what.

Samsung made a big show about introducing a similar feature in Galaxy S24which split the screen in two and vertically flipped the text at the top of the screen. It’s called Translator mode this means that each person sees the translated conversation from their own point of view – while the phone remains completely motionless. It turns out that Google Translate can do this too, using something called “Face to Face” mode.

It works exactly the same, and once the conversation mode opens, you’ll tap the Face to Face icon at the top of the screen. All a person has to do is tap the microphone icon when it’s their turn to speak, and Google Translate will fill in the gaps.

This may not be a feature you’ll need in a store or somewhere small, but if you need to have a long conversation, it can easily make the whole process a lot less painless. Especially if there is a flat surface nearby, such as a table, on which you can place your phone.

The only feature I couldn’t live without

Google Translate features in the Google app

(Image credit: Future)

In the end, it didn’t really matter that I didn’t know about these two features, even if they would have made life a lot easier. As it turned out, the level of English in large Japanese cities is better than I thought, and communication problems were not too common. However, there was one feature I definitely couldn’t live without: Google Lens.

Google Translate has had a camera translation feature for a few years now, but the early development of the feature was quite far from what Google Lens can handle today. Because Japanese kanji is so much more foreign (not to mention complex) than the Latin alphabet I’m used to, I had to use the Lens translation tool every single day.

Google Translate features in the Google app

(Image credit: Future)

Since I didn’t actually leave the city, many of the official signs had English translations (in many cases along with Chinese and Korean). Very useful if you’re trying to navigate public transport, but once you leave the station or super-touristy areas, everything reverts back to Japanese – as you’d expect. Even something as simple as the TV remote was written in Japanese, and not all the icons were as familiar as one might expect.

During the trip, I had to translate menus, store signs, food labels, receipts, road signs, and much more. When you don’t know a single letter of the local alphabet, being able to translate everything at the touch of a button is almost magical.

Other useful Google Translate features

Offline translation: Tying your translation abilities to the strength of local 4G signals isn’t always ideal. Especially if your operator doesn’t offer free roaming, since there won’t always be free Wi-Fi. Google Translate’s offline language packs mean it still has access to a specific language even if you’re not connected to the Internet.

Handwritten translation: While it’s certainly much more niche than the rest and not the kind of thing I need, Google Translate does offer a handwriting feature and it works surprisingly well as long as you’re not trying to draw kanji with zero previous value. experience.

The future of Google Translate

Close-up photo of the Apple Watch SE 2022 against a red background with the new Translator app on the screen.

(Image credit: Future)

One thing we’ve slowly started to notice is the desire to translate different languages on devices other than phones. Apple Watch now has a translation appthanks to watchOS 11, and Samsung added AI-powered translation features for select Galaxy Buds – including a version of the translator mode on Galaxy buds3 And Bads3 Pro.

Google hasn’t actually done anything like this, despite releasing a completely new one Pixel clock 3 And Pixel Buds Pro 2 over the past few months. Given that 2024 saw a big push towards Gemini AIyou were hoping Google would add as much Artificial Intelligence Powered Features in as many places as possible. Considering that translation is so useful and already uses artificial intelligence, you would think that this would be an ideal choice.

Having more and easier ways to translate between different languages can only be a good thing, especially if it means you don’t have to whip out your phone and download a special app. We hope Google sees some sense and adds translation functionality to some of its non-phone devices. Heck, I’d settle for an official Wear OS version of Google Translate, even if it’s not as feature-rich as the phone app.