How you can use the Google Translate app to translate languages offline
The Google Translate app makes it easier to get by in a country where you don't speak the local language. One could say this app is moving us closer to the universal translators used by crew members on the Enterprise (though Google Translate doesn't include any alien languages - yet).
Let's say your phone plan might not work in the country you're visiting. Or you've hiked to a remote village where no one speaks English, and there's no cell service or WiFi. You can still call on Google Translate to communicate with the locals through offline translation.
Offline translation only works on a smartphone or tablet; you can't use Google Translate offline with the computer version of the app. You will need a little setup before you use the app offline.
Here's how to use the app to translate languages when you're offline.
How to use Google Translate offline
Tap a language on either side of the translate divide to download it. Google
You will need to download each language you want to use offline in the Google Translate app.
Some languages have upgrades available. To find out if one of your downloads can be upgraded, follow these steps:
It only takes a few moments to download a language library or an upgrade, if you're connected to good WiFi.
Languages are fluid and evolving and so is Google Translate. It's a good idea to periodically check your Offline translation languages to see if an update is available. Follow the steps to upgrade and tap Update for the language you want. Then you'll be able to use the latest version offline, wherever you go.
There is an added benefit of downloading a language. Google Translate can instantly translate signs through your phone's camera. That feature may not work properly (or at all) unless you download the language.
Which languages you can access offline
As of this writing, Google Translate can help you converse in more than 100 languages. Not all of them are available to download. When there's no download icon next to a language, you can't use Google Translate for that language offline. If you need to speak to someone in Tajik or Malayalam (among others), you'll need an internet or cellular connection.
Androids have the option to limit data usage
The steps to download a language are the same for Android and iPhone or iPad, with one difference. On Android phones, you have the option to set parameters for data usage. This can help you avoid data charges when you download languages for use offline. Here's how.
In Settings, find and delete your downloaded languages under "Offline translation." Google; Business Insider
If you need space on your phone, you can always delete a language download. In Settings, under Offline translation, simply tap the trash icon next to the language you want to eliminate. You can always download it again later.
How to Translate Android Apps into Your Language
Translating text which is not your native language can be a painstaking task. Though web apps like Google Translate make it easier, you'd still have to go back and forth between different browser tabs or apps. In some cases, grab a screenshot to convert it to your native language. Quite a hassle, right?
Thankfully, a couple of apps on the Play Store can make it easy to translate text inside Android apps into any language. But before we get down to it, it's worth noting that these apps demand an active internet connection to work, as they do not support offline languages. Naturally, these apps require a couple of Android permissions like Accessibility Service to do their job.
Let's check some of these apps.
Note: Translations available through the apps are rarely 100% accurate. However, they do their best in getting the meaning across.
1. Google Translate App
Yeah, Google Translate does let you translate text inside apps. Seriously, I am not kidding. In 2016, Google released a feature named Tap to Translate which eased the process of translating small phrases and words on the go.
As you may have guessed, this option is disabled by default. To enable it, open the Translate app, tap on Settings > Tap to Translate, and toggle the switch on. Select your primary language, and that’s about it.
To use this feature, long-press on a text, select Copy, and the bubble will pop up at the top-right corner. Just tap on it to see the translated text.
Though it's a pretty good way to see the translations, this app can't do much when it comes to showing the translated renderings of long paragraphs or short notes. Plus, it doesn't work on apps like Instagram where you can't copy unselectable text through the native method.
Since it uses Google Translate, most of the rendered text is pretty much spot on. It supports many languages including German, Portuguese, French and Turkish and has a built-in OCR feature for games as well.
The app is free to install from the Play Store. The free version has a couple of skippable ads which you may remove by upgrading to the pro version.
On the upside, you needn't mess with the Battery Optimization settings since you'll be launching Language Navi first.
It is compatible with popular apps like Twitter, Google Play Books, Amazon Kindle, etc. As far as reading tweets on foreign languages is concerned, open the tweet in question and the text will be translated in a few seconds.
Download Language Navi
3. SnapTrans
SnapTrans does away with the Language Navi's complicated approach. It brings a Messenger-like bubble that floats above everything else on your screen, which you can activate whenever you want. It supports some popular languages like Chinese, Español, Portuguese, and French.
SnapTrans has two features — one-word translations and full-page translations. In short, it’s the combination of Google’s Tap on Translate and SnapTrans.
Since it works via the floating bubble, you’d have to grant the Overlay permission. To use this app you'd have to feed to source and target language in the beginning. From now on, whenever you see text in a foreign language, double tap on the bubble to see the translated text.
If you want to change the language settings, tap on the gear-shaped icon.
The app has a sticky notification on the notification drawer to keep it active in the background. However, if you're someone like me who loves to keep a clean notification tray, you can whitelist it in the battery optimization.
Note: Do keep in mind that this app doesn’t work if you are offline.
Download SnapTrans
Welcome to the Global Village
As people from different corners of the world are trying their hand on building apps, the chances are that you may come across some which are not in English or they are in a language which you do not understand.
So, which app do I use? I prefer Language Navi for now. Though it takes a complicated approach, I love its seamless translations and intuitive interface. Just choose the language of your choice and ta-da! Plus I do not have to deal with bubbles taking up screen space.
Next up: Looking for apps to translate foreign languages text in real time using the camera? Here are a bunch of live translation apps that you can use while traveling to foreign countries.
Last updated on 20 Feb, 2019
Google Translate is a manifestation of Wittgenstein’s theory of language
More than 60 years after philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s theories on language were published, the artificial intelligence behind Google Translate has provided a practical example of his hypotheses. Patrick Hebron, who works on machine learning in design at Adobe and studied philosophy with Wittgenstein expert Garry Hagberg for his bachelor’s degree at Bard College, notes that the networks behind Google Translate are a very literal representation of Wittgenstein’s work.
Google employees have previously acknowledged that Wittgenstein’s theories gave them a breakthrough in making their translation services more effective, but somehow, this key connection between philosophy of language and artificial intelligence has long gone under-celebrated and overlooked.
Crucially, Google Translate functions by making sense of words in their context. The translation service relies on an algorithm created by Google employees called word2vec, which creates “vector representations” for words, which essentially means that each word is represented numerically.
For the translations to work, programmers have to then create a “neural network,” a form of machine learning, that’s trained to understand how these words relate to each other. Most words have several meanings (“trunk,” for example, can refer to part of an elephant, tree, luggage, or car, notes Hebron), and so Google Translate has to understand the context. The neural network will read millions of texts, focusing on the two words preceding and following on from any one word, so as to be able to predict a word based on the words surrounding it. The artificial intelligence calculates probabilistic connections between each word, which form the coordinates of an impossible-to-imagine multi-dimensional vector space.
Here’s the cool part: It turns out that algebra can be applied to the vector representations of the words and produce conceptually meaningful results. Hebron cites the canonical example, published in Computer Science in 2013: “If you take the word vector representing ‘king,’ minus the vector representing ‘man,’ plus ‘woman,’ you will land in the vector space that represents the word ‘queen.’” This is not a fluke; for example, there’s a similar vector relationship between the vector representations for “Beijing” and “China” as there is for “Moscow” and “Russia,” notes Hebron.
“Similar words land in similar places,” says Hebron. “The spatial relationships between these words holds to the ways we think about the conceptual relations between them.”
This connection is a representation of Wittgenstein’s notion of language. In Philosophical Investigations, published posthumously in 1953, the philosopher argued that there are no standard, fixed meanings to words; instead, their meanings lie in their use. “[W]hen investigating meaning, the philosopher must “look and see” the variety of uses to which the word is put,” notes Stanford Encyclopedia’s explanation of Wittgenstein’s theory. He also emphasized that words must be understood by their “family resemblance” to other words: “There is no reason to look, as we have done traditionally—and dogmatically—for one, essential core in which the meaning of a word is located and which is, therefore, common to all uses of that word. We should, instead, travel with the word’s uses through “a complicated network of similarities overlapping and criss-crossing’,” notes Stanford Encyclopedia.
And so Google Translate neatly maps on to Wittgenstein’s theories: “There’s a very literal connection between these two ideas because the ways we’re coming up with the representations of words within word2vec is that we are basically finding a place for them in space by looking at their surrounding words and pinpointing them as defined by the sum of all of their in-context uses,” says Hebron.
This is far from the only example of artificial intelligence putting philosophical theories to the test. For example, Noam Chomsky argued that certain features of language, such as grammar, are biologically and innately rooted in the mind; but deep learning pioneer Yoshua Bengio has noted that deep learning so far entirely contradicts these theories. While machine learning is certainly useful in its own right, Hebron notes that it can also be “case studies for otherwise abstract philosophical notions.” Given that philosophers such as George Boole and Gottlob Frege first created computer code, it makes sense that advances in AI would continually circle.
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