For example, the text used for translation testing uses the word “court” to refer to a type of area within a building. In terms of general accuracy, our experts found it to be pretty good for nailing sentence structure but it could often present some confusing results from having a vocabulary that is too general. However, casual users may not know this exists without stumbling upon it. On-device mode is perhaps the main point of frustration, as being able to download languages so you can use Translate without a connection is extremely useful. As with other Apple-made iOS apps, you have to venture out of the app and into Settings to tweak some more complex elements.Īdmittedly, there isn’t a whole lot of further functionality to be had here – simply letting you allow Translate to function using mobile data and the option for an on-device mode. However, there is more to this app, and that’s where a degree of hassle creeps in. In the Italian translation, Google slipped up on the gender of some words while in Spanish it muddled the meaning of some sentences. Throughout My Language Lab’s testing of these apps, the company utilised an extract from The Art and Architecture of Islam 650-1250 by Richard Ettinghausen and Oleg Grabar for analysis purposes, with a focus on Italian and Spanish translation capabilities. But what good are these features if the translations aren’t necessarily up to snuff? My Language Lab found Google Translate’s translations to be broadly accurate but spotted some errors, especially relating to morphology (the structure and composition of the words in the sentence) and word gender. Google Translate has lots of features, especially for a free app. The more complex settings allow for specific tweaks, such as allowing offensive words, choosing specific regions for certain languages and turning on offline translation. Once you’ve completed any translating, you can share and save them. Camera lets you take a picture of text to translate it Conversation is for live translation as you and someone else converse in different languages and Transcribe is for translating ongoing audio from one source. You’ll then see “Camera”, “Conversation” and “Transcribe” options clearly presented.

Picture language translator