Imagine practicing Spanish or French on your daily commute with just a tap on your phone.
Google announced Tuesday its plan to introduce an artificial intelligence language practice feature within the Translate app, aiming to help users sharpen both their listening and speaking abilities in real time.
The experience is personalized, adapting to whether someone is completely new or already conversational, tailoring every session to the individual’s progress and goals. With this, Google steps right into territory that has been dominated by popular language platforms like Duolingo.
To get started, users choose the practice option within the app, set their desired level, and pick what they want to work on. Sessions can focus on listening to short conversations, selecting words as they’re heard to improve comprehension, or practicing actual speaking, tracking improvement as users move from beginner to advanced.
Right now, this beta feature rolls out for English speakers learning Spanish and French, as well as for Spanish, French, and Portuguese speakers working on their English. It’s available on both Android and iOS devices beginning this week.
Live Conversation Translation Gets a Boost
Another part of Google’s upgrade is a new way to chat with others in more than seventy languages, including Korean, Hindi, and Arabic, with instant audio and text translation. By selecting “Live translate” in the app, two people can have a fluid, back-and-forth conversation, with the app automatically identifying the spoken language, switching as needed, and reading the translation aloud with matching transcripts.
“Building on our existing live conversation experience, our advanced AI models are now making it even easier to have a live conversation in more than seventy languages,” the company shared in a blog post, emphasizing the leap forward in real time communication technology.
Google says this system uses advanced voice and speech recognition to help people connect even in noisy environments, like restaurants or crowded airports, eliminating the usual frustration of background noise and regional accents.
Launch day for this enhanced experience is Tuesday, and it’s available for users in the United States, India, and Mexico, where recent Translate app enhancements are also rolling out.
