Google Translate app gets AI follow-up feature

The Google Translate app has been a valuable addition to any international traveler’s tech arsenal since its launch in 2006; Google says it now translates a trillion words every month. Not that he does it entirely accurately. For two decades, the app has also been a source of hilarious translation fails, which in themselves created enough content for multiple lists, Reddit threads, and YouTube videos.

But rightly or wrongly, the app has never been able to explain the process it followed to achieve this translation – in other words, to show off its work. Not until now. An experimental feature spotted by Android Authority, currently being tested on the Android version of Google Translate, adds an “Understand” button at the bottom of the screen.

Using Gemini AI for the explanation, “Understand” details the app’s “thinking” process. And it doesn’t spare the user any shame if the query in the original language isn’t well formulated. In Android Authority’s example, the words “it’s not practical” are translated into Hindi as “yah avyaavahaarik hai”, with the app noting that this is a more common way to translate the English phrase “it’s not practical”. (Yet the app missed a teaching opportunity here – to point out that Hindi invariably puts its verbs at the end of the sentence.)

Another AI-driven button next to “Understand” is “Ask,” which suggests other queries useful to any language learner. The app is able to use the translated expression in a sentence and can tell you whether the usage is formal or informal. In other words, Google Translate may soon be able to provide the kind of context that any language teacher will tell you is crucial for true understanding.

The two experimental AI buttons, which have not yet been confirmed as an upcoming feature, replace a single button that allowed Android users to “request follow.” Even this button doesn’t exist in the iOS version yet, so iPhone users may have to wait a while to see this feature if they ever get it. At least the iOS version was the first to feature larger, clearer text, which was only just added to the Android version.

Adding more “understanding” to Google Translate seems in line with the company’s stated plans to make the app more educational. This summer, Google announced that Duolingo-style “language practice sessions” would be rolling out in beta to Android and iOS users, starting with English-speaking users who want to learn Spanish.

“We’re going way beyond simple language-to-language translation,” wrote Matt Sheets, Google Translate product manager. Based on user feedback, Sheets said, the app now aims to help you “listen and speak confidently on the topics that matter to you.” Adding more contextual “understanding” would certainly enhance this confidence. But whether these features will be enough for Google to compete with Duolingo’s much more intensive language courses remains, for now, an untranslatable question.