As I like to often say, living the future is pretty cool and thanks to Google, it’s about to get even more cool. On the Android Developer Blog, Google has posted that starting next week, for those of you who have Google Translate and are running Android Marshmallow, they will begin offering in-app translation for apps that have been configured to support the feature. The feature is one that could be very handy for those who want to read reviews or other user generated content without having to go out of the app and into Google Translate. It works seamlessly on the backed.
For users, if you are in an app that supports the in-app translation, you simply tap and highlight the word or paragraph you want to translate. If the app has Text Selection (which is required for
Google Translate in-app translations
this to work), you will get a small dialog where you can then select translate. Take a look at the GIF to the right to see how this works.
The implications for this feature are substantial from an end user perspective. No longer would you have to copy & paste the foreign text into Google Translate itself but rather you can simply stay in the app you are using (like TripAdvisor in the example Google users) to read a review in your native language inside of it.
As you can imagine, not every app is going to have this feature straight away but my guess is that TripAdvisor will be one of the first since Google is highlighting it. Also, as I mentioned, you have to be running Android Marshmallow for this to work. The key will be for developers to update their apps with this new code and for Android Marshmallow to continue to be released for devices.
