Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is working on new features for Google Translate, including a new AI model picker.
- The model picker will let users choose between “Fast” and “Advanced” models, allowing them to choose between quick translations or more accurate ones powered by Gemini.
- Only English-Spanish/French pairs are supported so far for the Advanced model.
Google has been working on several major new features for Google Translate. These include AI-enabled translations, a redesign of the Conversation mode, and even a new Practice mode that could potentially compete with Duolingo. All of these feature AI at the forefront, and Google is not done with the changes yet. We’ve now spotted even more UI changes coming to Translate, alongside a new model picker to let you select the AI model for your translation needs.
We had already spotted Google working to add a button for the upcoming Practice feature. As part of the changes, Google would shrink the size of the voice input button and move it to the right instead of occupying the center position. The bookmarks button at the top for Saved content was also spotted back then.
Google Translate v9.15.114 includes code for more changes to the Translate UI, which we managed to activate ahead of release. In the future, a new row of icons will house the buttons for microphone/voice input, handwriting, and paste. This will make reaching the handwriting and paste buttons easier with one hand.
As you can see, the resultant UI will be cleaner since icons are no longer strewn across the input box, but are placed in a neat row towards the bottom.
In the above screenshot, you will also notice a new model picker under the Google Translate title. This picker will also be available from the Translate results page.
This model picker will have two options:
- Fast: Optimizes for speed and efficiency
- Advanced: Specializes in accuracy using Gemini
The Fast model seems to provide translations quickly and efficiently, but possibly at the cost of accuracy. It may work for quick and casual use cases. If you need more accuracy, the Advanced model would be for you, as it would use Gemini for accurate results.
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From our limited testing, the Advanced model currently supports only a few language pairs, namely English paired with French and Spanish:
- English > Spanish | Spanish > English
- English > French | French > English
These language pairs are the same ones that would be supported in Google Translate’s Learning feature.
Google has yet to announce or detail these upcoming changes to Google Translate. We’ll keep you updated when we learn more.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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