New AI-powered live translation and language learning tools in Google Translate
Every monthpeople translate around 1 trillion words across Google TranslateSearch and in visual translations in Lens and Circle to Search. Nowthanks to AIwe’re making it even more effortless to overcome language barriers. Using the advanced reasoning and multimodal capabilities of Gemini modelswe’re bringing two new features to Translate to help with live conversations and language learning.
Live conversations translated in real time
Exploring the world is more meaningful when you can easily connect with the people you meet along the way. To help with thiswe’ve introduced the ability to have a back-and-forth conversation in real time with audio and on-screen translations through the Translate app. Building on our existing live conversation experienceour advanced AI models are now making it even easier to have a live conversation in more than 70 languages — including ArabicFrenchHindiKoreanSpanishand Tamil.
To try it outopen the Translate app for Android or iOStap on “Live translate,” select the languages you want to translate and simply begin speaking. You’ll hear the translation aloud and see a transcript of your conversation in both languages on your device. Translate smoothly switches between the two languages you and your language partner are speakingintelligently identifying conversational pausesaccents and intonations. This allows you to have a natural conversation with just a single tap.
Google Translate’s live capabilities use our advanced voice and speech recognition modelswhich are trained to help isolate sounds. This means you get a high-quality experience in the real worldlike in busy airports or at a noisy cafe in a new country. These new live translate capabilities are available starting today for users in the U.S.India and Mexico.
Customized language learning capabilities
Google Translate is already a powerful tool for learning a new language. But we’ve heard from our users that the toughest skill to master is conversation — specificallylearning to listen and speak with confidence on the topics you care about. So today we’re piloting a new language practice feature designed to help you meet your unique learning goals.
Whether you’re an early learner looking to begin practicing conversation or an advanced speaker looking to brush up on vocabulary for an upcoming tripTranslate can now create tailored listening and speaking practice sessions just for you. These interactive practices are generated on-the-fly and intelligently adapt to your skill level.
To startjust tap “practice” in the appset your skill-level and goalsand Translate will generate customized scenarios for you to dive into. In each scenarioyou can either listen to conversations and tap the words you hear to build comprehensionor you can practice speaking with helpful hints available when you need them. Developed with learning experts based on the latest studies in language acquisitionthese exercises track your daily progress and help you build the skills you need to communicate in another language with confidence.
Following positive feedback from early testerswe're excited to start rolling out this beta experience more broadly in the Translate app for Android and iOS this week. It’s available first for English speakers practicing Spanish and Frenchas well as for SpanishFrench and Portuguese speakers practicing English.
AI advancements for translation
These updates are made possible by advancements in AI and machine learning. As we continue to push the boundaries of language processing and understandingwe are able to serve a wider range of languages and improve the quality and speed of translations. And with our Gemini models in Translatewe've been able to take huge strides in translation qualitymultimodal translationand text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities. We're going far beyond simple language-to-language translationand delivering an experience that helps you learnunderstand and navigate conversations with ease.