8 Best Google Translate Features You Should Use in 2023

With the advancement of technology, the world is more connected than ever. Even the language barriers are being overcome with it. Although we have great tools like Google Translate to help us communicate effectively, many of us do not know what their functions are and how to use them effectively.

Google Translate has some great features that you can use to improve your communication and language understanding in a new country. In this guide, we have mentioned some features that you should use in Google Translate to make it a companion in communicating and understanding new languages.

Let us see what these features are and how you can use them.

What is Google Translate

Google Translate is a free tool from Google for translating languages. It relies on machine learning and artificial intelligence to read and translate languages and is capable of translating websites, texts, documents, images, etc.

Although it was launched in 2006, it is getting better every day thanks to Google’s active work. Google Translate can help you translate important languages, such as English, into local and regional languages that are not widely spoken and vice versa.

Thanks to its wide distribution and user-friendly interface, Google Translate has become an indispensable tool for millions of users all over the world.

Today, Google Translate is a powerful translation tool that will help you overcome language barriers and understand languages better. With the following features, you can make the most of it.

Best Google Translate Features You Should Use

Translate Web Pages

If you are reading news or looking for information about something that is not available in the languages you know, Google Translate can come to your rescue.

When you open web pages in Google Chrome that you do not understand, Google Translate automatically recognizes text other than English and offers to translate the web page into English that you can understand.

You can even have it translated into a language other than English. Just click the button with three dots in the Google Translate bar and select Choose another language.

This will bring up the Language to translate into field, where you can find many languages in the drop-down menu. Select the language you are familiar with and click Translate to translate the web page into the language you want.

This way, you can translate the entire web page into the language of your choice and better understand the written text.

Related Read: How to Fix Google Chrome Translate Not Working

Translate Handwriting

The Google Translate app has a built-in feature that allows you to write the text with your own hands instead of typing it and have it translated into the language of your choice.

You can write in any language and have it translated. Moreover, you can copy the translated text and paste it into any app or messenger if you want.

This is how you write and translate text by hand in Google Translate,

• Click the Enter Text tab in the Google Translate app.
• Select the Pen icon you see at the top.
• This will bring up the Write here box at the bottom. Write your text there.
• Google Translate automatically recognizes your handwriting and translates it for you.

You can also use the camera button on the Google Translate app home page and capture the handwriting in your books or elsewhere and have it translated into the language of your choice.

Translate Spoken Conversations in Real Time

If you are talking to someone and you do not understand the language they speak, you can use Google Translate to translate the conversation in real time into the language you understand. This feature will help you a lot when traveling in areas where regional languages are spoken that are foreign to the world.

To translate spoken conversations in real-time, click the Conversation button on the home screen of the Google Translate app. The app will now listen to the conversations, recognize the language, and translate it into your regional language.

You can see the details of the language the person is speaking and the language they are translating into right in the Google Translate app. Just tap the translated language button to change the translation to another language of your choice.

Related Read: 10 Best Offline Translator Apps for Android and iOS

Take a Photo and Translate

Google Translate has another great feature that can help you translate the text written on something in real life. You can simply click on the image and translate it into the language you are fluent in.

If you find something you do not understand, just open the Google Translate app and click the Camera button on the home screen. Then point the camera at the text and click it. Google Translate will automatically detect the language and translate the text into your local language. You can change it to another language or have Google Translate read the translated text aloud using the options you see after clicking the image.

Save Phrases for Later Use

Google Translate allows you to save the translated words or phrases in the phrasebook for later use. Whenever you want to use the word but do not remember it exactly, you can access the world in the phrasebook. This feature is helpful when you want to learn and remember new words for daily use.

To save words/phrases, click the button with the three dots in the upper right corner after translating a word. In the options, select the Add to phrasebook option.

To access the saved phrases or words, tap the star icon on the Google Translate app home screen.

There you will find all the saved phrases. You can remove any phrase by simply tapping the star icon next to it.

Use Google Translate for Pronunciation

Since we translate many words, it is important that we know the correct pronunciation of the word. We sound unpleasant to the locals if we use awkward pronunciation. To make this easier, you can even use Google Translate to learn the pronunciation of the word.

When you translate a word or phrase with Google Translate, you will see a speaker button next to the original word and the translated word. Click it to listen to the pronunciation of the words.

This way, you can learn the correct pronunciation of the word and behave like a local when you travel.

Download Languages for Offline Translation

We are not guaranteed to have a good network or access to the Internet everywhere. When we travel frequently to new places, we have to compromise in this regard. This poses a threat to people who use translation apps to understand the locals.

To make it easier for users when internet access is poor, Google Translate lets you download languages for offline use. So if you are traveling to a place whose language you do not understand, you can simply download the language of that region as well as the language you do understand to make the translation process easier even without a network.

To download the languages for offline use, translate something and tap on the name of the language. This will bring up a list of languages available in Google Translate with a download button next to the language. Tap the download button to download the language to your device for later use.

Translate Emails

We receive emails on a regular basis. If you receive an email in a language other than English on Gmail, Gmail automatically offers to translate the language into English for better understanding. You can change the language from English to any other language of your choice to translate.

Even if Gmail does not offer to translate an email, you can translate it into a language of your choice. Open the email in Gmail and click the button with three dots in the address bar of the email. Then select Translate Message. This will add a translation bar to your email where you can change the languages.

Make the Most Out of Google Translate With these Features

Google Translate is useful for translating languages we do not know into languages we understand better. Since it offers almost all languages spoken in the world, it is an indispensable tool for frequent travelers. The features mentioned above go beyond the basic use of Google Translate and help you in various cases.

FAQs on Best Google Translate Features You Should Use

How do I get the best out of Google Translate?

To get the most out of Google Translate, you need to understand its features and use cases. Download the languages you use most often for offline use, and use Google Translate even in places where there is no network connection. With a better understanding of its features and some common sense, Google Translate will become a faithful companion.

What is Google Translate best at translating?

Google Translate can translate almost any language best. For other languages, it may not be quite as accurate and factual as it is for English since English is the most commonly used language. Google relies on user feedback to improve its translation features. Translating from other languages to English and vice versa can be best with Google Translate.

How do I use Google Translate perfectly?

To use Google Translate perfectly, you need to understand the features available in the Google Translate app and how to use them. Only then will you be able to use the different features and get the most out of them when needed.

What is the disadvantage of Google Translate?

We cannot rely on Google Translate to translate every language, as the accuracy of some languages is too low. Even if Google improves the language learning and translation features of Google Translate, there may be translation errors. Some languages may not translate perfectly with the intended meaning of the original language.