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Google Translate is a great tool for quickly understanding someone else’s words in a language you don’t speak or read. There are lots of ways you can use Google Translate on the web, on your phone and even with your smartphone camera.
So if you’re looking to quickly translate text so you can understand it or so you can have a conversation who doesn’t speak your mother tongue, then this is a great free tool to use.
Keep reading to find out all the different ways you may use Google Translate and how it can help you out.
What is Google Translate?
At its core Google Translate is a tool that you can use to use to translate all sorts of things in your daily life. You can access it via adedicated website,a smartphone app, browser extensions, viaGoogle Assistant, directly through Google Search results and more besides.
Google Translate can be used to translate a multitude of different languages. In 2022, Google announced that it was able to handle133 different languagesusing its translation service. You can even download them in some instances so you can translate offline as well.
One of the biggest highlights for us is Google Translate’s ability to automatically recognise languages, so if you’re not even sure what it is you’re trying to read you don’t need to worry as Google will know.
What can Google Translate do?
Google Translate has been getting better and better over the years. The system is now able to handle the translations of many different languages in all sorts of different ways:
How good is Google Translate?
Google Translate has improved a lot over the last few years, though it’s still not perfect. You won’t be convincing native speakers that you’re suddenly fluent in their language.
That said it doesn’t necessarily use a word-for-word literal translation of the text and instead uses machine learning to provide a reasonably accurate translation of whatever you’ve asked it to look at.
Sometimes you’ll find it hit-and-miss, other times it’s brilliant. It is free to use though, so you may’t complain too much whatever the results!
How to use Google Translate in Google Chrome
Since it’s a Google product you’ll be unsurprised to learn that Google Translate is available to use easily inGoogle Chrome. If you’re on a page that’s in a different language and you want to learn what the text is about simply highlight the particular text and then right-click with your mouse. On the menu that appears you can then select either Google Translate or “Translate selection to…” (your language).
Google is also clever enough to recognise when you’re looking at content that’s in a different language and gives you the option to translate everything that’s on the page.
At the top of the browser in the address bar, you should find a little black-and-white Google Translate icon. Click on that and it will pop up with the option to switch the language to your native language (or other chosen language). The entire page will then be displayed in the other language in the blink of an eye.
How to use Google Translate in Google Search
If your browser is set to default to Google as its homepage then good news as you can quickly use Google Translate directly from Google’s results.
This is useful if you have some text from elsewhere that you need to translate. If it’s in an email, a document or just elsewhere and you can copy and paste it then this is a quick way to do it.
Simply search for “Translate” in Google and you’ll then be presented with a dialogue box to enter the text. Paste it into the left-hand box and then select the language from the drop-down and the language you want to translate to in the right drop-down.
You can then swap these around if you want to translate the other way around.
This tool is handy because you can also see both a microphone and speaker buttons in the translation boxes. If you click the mic then you can use your voice (or someone else’s) to capture the language and then translate it. While the speaker button will then make Google read the translation out to you. This will give you an idea of how it sounds in the translated language and how to say it if you need to converse with someone.
Translate with your camera
Google Translate is also integrated intoGoogle Lens. This means you canuse this appto get a live translation of whatever yoursmartphone camerais pointing at. to do this simply:
If you find this isn’t working for some reason you can click at the top of the screen to change the language options. As standard it’s set to automatically detect the language, but this might mean an error occurs with similar languages so you can click to change to the specific one you’re trying to translate.
Another option is to take a photo with Google Lens and then translate the photo instead. This can be more accurate than the live translation, especially if you don’t have a particularly steady hand.
How to use Google Translate offline
If you are worried about data usage or if you’re going to be travelling to a foreign country whereroaming plansare going to be costly then you might have thought about offline translations. The good news is Google makes it easy to use its app without using data if you plan ahead. You can choose to download languages to the Google Translate app so you can use them later without much fuss. To do this:
If you’re doing this we’d also recommenddownloading Google Maps dataso you may use that for offline directions as well. There’s nothing quite like being prepared.
How to translate with Google Assistant
Everyone’s favourite assistant (barChatGPTof course) is able to work as a translation tool too. With Google Assistant you canturn on interpreter modeand translate back-and-forth conversations on the fly.
Google Assistant’s translation capabilities are available on Android andiOS phonesas well as various differentGoogle Assistant devices. So whether you’re out and about and in need of translations or have someone in your home who you need to speak to Google is there to help.
This live interpreter translation system doesn’t support as many languages as Google Translate on the web but it’s still a useful tool.
To use Google Assistant to translate like this say:
How to translate with your headphones
As well as using Google Assistant to translate it’s also possible touse your headphonesassuming they’re Google Assistant capable. The most obvious choice here is theGoogle Pixel Budsbut other earphones will work too. Obviously, this requires a mic in the headphones so Google Assistant can hear you talk and the other speaker as well.
To do this:
You may also have controls to simply press and hold the headphones to activate conversation mode. You’ll then need to tap the other language button when you’re ready to listen to the language and have it translated. Watch the video above to see an example of this in action.
Translating hieroglyphs
Ok, this one isn’t technically via Google Translate (yet) but Google has made it possible to usea tool to translate ancient hieroglyphs.
Fabricius, as it is known, isa tool that’s been trained by machine learningto recognise the ancient Egyptian language and can translate it into English. It’s not perfect, but it’s a great demo of how technology can help us access other languages, even long-forgotten ones.
