Translate Text Directly in WhatsApp and Other Android Apps

Sometimes you come across foreign texts that need immediate translation. You have to then copy the text and paste it onto the Google Translate app in the middle of a conversation. It is time consuming, switching from app to app and you lose the heat of the moment. With the new Google Translate app feature, you can convert text on the fly within the app without much hassle.

Rolling out the latest Android Marshmallow this week, google incorporated this new feature of translating text within the apps. Now you can translate any foreign text directly in the app that you are using, no need to copy and paste it to the Google Translate app. The update allows translate app to operate within apps like WhatsApp, TripAdvisor and Linkedin in over 90 languages with the function set to expand soon to more apps.

How to directly translate the text?

• The feature is available only for the latest android version users Marshmallow that incorporates this function in its Android Text Selection.
• You need to first have the Translate app installed in your device.
• Long press the text needed to be translated which will be highlighted and select the translate option.
• Select your preferred language and you are done.

Developers who create custom text selection behaviour can also add this new feature easily.

The app has got Word Lens tool which uses the camera of the device to take the photo of the text and give its translation in 36 languages. Just point your camera to the text and get its translation on your screen even if there is no data connection.

As an extension to the ‘Conversation mode’ that helps the users to directly speak the text to be translated, Barak Turovsky, Product Lead of Google Translated quoted,

“More than 500 million people translate over 100 billion words a day on google translate. With updates like this one, plus features like conversation mode and instant camera translation, we’re making Translate available anywhere you need it.”

With manufacturers rolling out the latest Android 6.0 in the coming months, this update is surely one of the dominating features of Marshmallow. Now no more copy pasting to and from translate app needed.