Google brings real time transcription to Google Translate for Android

Google has been doing some amazing things with AI and the benefits for consumers are coming to fruition in interesting ways, such as real time transcription and translation in Google Translate for Android.

The feature brings the real time transcription technology we’ve seen on Pixel phones brought to all Android phones running Android.

The service will perform real time transcription and translation in eight languages – English, French, German, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Thai – allowing you to translate and transcribe back and forth between these languages in real time.

While Google says the feature works best with a single speaker in a quiet room, they say it can in theory be used in a range of spoken situations like ‘behind-the-scenes music videos in another language, online lectures or talks, conferences or classroom talks’.

The update begins rolling out today, so once your app has updated you should then see a ‘Transcribe’ button on the home screen.

Once you see the Transcribe button you can choose language packs, then pause or restart your transcription by tapping the Mic button. You can also review your previous transcriptions, and change the text size and customise the theme of the app to dark in the Google Translate settings menu

While the feature is coming to Android initially, Google says that it will soon be coming to iOS users in their Google Translate app.