What you need to know
- Google Translate has an Instant Translate feature that converts text from one language to another as you type.
- Currently, if you use Instant Translate, you don’t have access to some Google Translate tools.
- A future update may bring the full slate of Google Translate features to Instant Translate mode, providing a more straightforward experience.
Translation apps, such as Google Translate, are getting reliable enough that you can use them as a real-time translator. Part of that is due to features like Live Translate, which translates speech across languages, and Instant Translate, which converts text from one language to another.
However, if you use Instant Translate, you’ll lose out on a few major Google Translate features. With an upcoming software update, Instant Translate could gain full feature parity with the regular Google Translate mode.
The feature was spotted by Android Authority, who demonstrated the new Instant Translate functionality in the YouTube video below.
The changes were picked up in Android Authority’s teardown of the APK for v8.20.71.687383449.1 of the Google Translate app. While there’s no guarantee that this functionality will be released to the public, it’s clear that Google is testing big changes to Instant Translate. After the team at Android Authority managed to activate the feature, they saw all the Google Translate UI elements in Instant Translate mode.
When you use the default Google Translate mode in the mobile app, you have a lot of features at your fingertips. You can translate text, of course, but the user interface packs many more tools. For starters, the output can be spoken and copied. There will also be definitions and grammar suggestions that will help you understand the way words and phrases differ across languages.
The unfortunate part of using Instant Translate is that all these tools go away when this mode is activated. It’ll convert text from one language to another as you type in real-time, but the above actions — from speaking to copying — are unavailable until you exit Instant Translate. That is, for now. The upcoming version of the Google Translate app could bring all the above functionality to Instant Translate mode, making it one of the best ways to use the app.
We’ll have to wait and see if these changes to Instant Translate are available to users of the Google Translate app soon. In addition to the new functionality for Instant Translate, the report notes that Google Translate may add the ability to recover a recently deleted translation.
