At a presentation in San Francisco, Google showed a future feature of the Google Translate app that will make it possible to convert a conversation into another language in real time and transcribe that translation on the fly.
This unreleased feature gives Android users the ability to record audio in one language and have it converted to text and another language in real time. The Verge, among others, was present at the presentation and according to the medium, Google indicated that the function probably still requires an internet connection at the release.
This differs from the translation functions already available in the Google Translate app, where the translations are done on the device. Google says the new feature will require the translation to be handled by its own servers, because the company says multilingual transcription is more complex than just translating written text into another language or entering a single spoken sentence and then adding it. to be converted into another language.
The new feature, once available, will only work with sound recorded live through a smartphone’s built-in microphone. This means that the function does not yet work with audio files, but by playing back recorded audio and picking it up with the smartphone microphone, it can also be used.
During the presentation, Google explained that the feature continuously evaluates entire sentences while recording the audio. Then punctuation is added, certain word choices are adjusted according to the context of the entire sentence, and an attempt is made to correct elements based on accents and dialects. According to Google, this should lead to an accurate approximation of what is being said.
According to CNet, Google is currently testing the new feature in a number of languages, including Spanish, German and French. It is not yet known when the transcription feature will be officially available in the Google Translate app for Android.