Google Translate adds support to seven more Indian languages

Google translate will now be available in Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

Tech giant Google said its ‘Translate’ app will support seven more Indian languages, including Bengali, Gujarati and Kannada, to enable users to translate even visuals like road signs in English to these regional languages. “In an effort to bring down language barriers, Google today announced several updates to its Translate App. Google Translate has also added support for conversation mode in regional languages including Bengali and Tamil,” the US-based firm said in a statement.

Starting today, users in Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu can experience offline translations and instant visual translation in these languages, it added. Offline support will enable Indian language users to translate a word or sentence even when they are not connected to the internet.

To use offline translations capabilities, users will need to download the specific language pack from the Translate app when connected to the internet. The Translate app allows users to use the camera mode to capture a photo of English text and get a translation for it in these languages. 

Google in India has been positively using the local flavor, and making its presence felt in different ways. With its various products spread across the web and on smartphones, Google has been introducing new features to engage the Indian audience. Highlighting the most important mode of communication, Google is making its products available in various regional languages. Continuing its stride, Google Translate has added support for seven more Indian languages on its app. These languages include Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

These languages will now be available for different features on Google Translate. To start with, you can now make a translate query with your voice in these seven languages including Hindi and Malayalam. Offline Translation on Google Translate is also updated with support for the newly added languages. To use this feature, you would have to first download the language pack on the app. For example, if you’d like to use translate in Kannada in offline mode, you’d have to download its language pack first, and translate later in offline mode.

One of Google Translate’s nifty features is using the camera app to scan a picture, and translate the written text into different languages. This feature called ‘Word Lens’ has now spread to the newly added seven languages along with Hindi. You could earlier translate English text using the camera app in these languages. But the latest update allows you to translate the regional language text into English, especially road signs and menus. Considering India’s diversity, this feature will not only be helpful for tourists, but for Indian citizens as well. Since Word Lens works in offline mode, you’d again have to download the required language pack first to use this feature. 

Google has included two languages for its conversation mode on Translate. With this feature, Google Translate allows you to have a conversational mode of translate in Bengali and Tamil. To use this feature, tap on the microphone to start speaking in one language, and tap it again to speak in another. Google will recognize the languages being spoken, and provide results in a conversational manner.