Google Translate gets improved offline translations with the help of AI
Now you can download language packages that provide high-quality translations even if you don't have an internet connection.
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Google Translate's offline feature can be used if you're traveling internationally, don't have access to the internet or don't want to use your data.
Google on Tuesday began rolling out an update that lets you get more accurate translations even when you don't have an internet connection.
Around two years ago, Google introduced its neural machine translation (NMT) technology, which improved the accuracy of translations. The technology is now being brought offline, and will run in the Google Translate app directly on Android or iOS devices.
The neural system translates complete sentences, instead of pieces of a sentence, and takes broader context into consideration to figure out the most relevant translation. That makes translations of paragraphs and articles a lot smoother, the company said in a blog post.
The offline feature can be used if you're traveling internationally, don't have access to the internet or don't want to use your data. Each language set is between 35MB and 45MB, so downloading them won't take up too much storage space on your phone.
You can access the NMT offline translations by going to the offline translation settings on the Translate app, and tapping the arrow next to the language name to download the package. If you've used online translations in the past, there'll be a banner on your home screen that'll direct you to where you can update your offline files.
The NMT update will be rolled out in 59 languages over the next few days, Google said.
In April, Microsoft also launched an update to its Translator app that gives users access to neural machine language translations when they're offline by downloading language packs.