Google Translate can now translate street signs without taking a photo

The Google Translate app for iOS and Android will receive an update in the coming days, after which the app with Word Lens can directly translate a text on, for example, a blackboard, without the user having to take a photo.

In the app, users can point the camera at an object that has text on it that they want to translate, and the translation will appear directly on the screen in place of the untranslated text. That also works without an internet connection, says Google.

The Word Lens feature is limited to English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Russian for now, but the search giant promises to add support for more languages ​​at a later date. The technology comes from a company that Google acquired in May last year.

In addition to Word Lens, the update also includes a function to speak to two interlocutors in different languages ​​into the microphone of the smartphone, after which the software itself hears in which language the user speaks and translates it into the language of the other user. That way, conducting a conversation via Google Translate should be faster. The app will receive an update for iOS and Android in the coming days.