Google Translate now supports more than 119 languages

By Kyle Wiggers Published August 18, 2017

More than 500 million people around the world use Google to translate words and phrases, but the Mountain View company is nothing if not ambitious. On Monday, it announced the addition of 30 languages and locales to its suite of web- and phone-based translation apps, bringing the total number of supported languages to 119.

Google says the expanded support covers more than one billion speakers.

Recommended Videos

The additions include Georgian, African dialects of Swahili and Amharic, and Indian languages like Urdu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Gujarati. Google said it worked with native speakers to collect speech samples, training machine learning models to understand the languages’ nuances.

“[We asked] them to read common phrases,” Daan van Esch, a technical program manager at Google’s Speech division, said in a blog post. “This process trained our machine learning models to understand the sounds and words of the new languages and to improve their accuracy when exposed to more examples over time.”

The languages are available across Google’s range of translation apps, including Translate and Gboard. In the case of the latter keyboard app, though, users have to manually enable the language via the apps’ Voice Typing and Voice Search settings.

Here’s how:

Install Gboard from the Play Store. Head over to Settings > Languages and Input > Virtual Keyboard > Gboard. You can also access these settings from the keyboard by pressing on the G icon, and selecting the Settings wheel.
Tap on Voice Typing > Languages to add more languages.
To voice type in Gboard, tap the mic icon on the upper right when the keyboard is open.
Next, open the Google app.
Tap the three lines on the top left and go to Settings. Tap Voice > Languages and add the ones you want.

New languages aren’t the only thing heading to Google’s speech recognition. Starting Monday, Gboard is gaining support for “emoji-to-text” — you can say something like “winky face emoji,” and it’ll paste the relevant emoji for you. Google is also upgrading its Cloud Speech API, its voice transcription developer toolkit, with expanded support for audio timestamps and files up to three hours in length.

“[The] new expanded language support […] enables users in more countries to use speech to access products and services that up until now have never been available to them,” Dan Aharon, product manager at Google’s Cloud Platform, said in a blog post.

Former Staff Writer

Kyle Wiggers is a writer, Web designer, and podcaster with an acute interest in all things tech. When not reviewing gadgets…

Topics

Phones

I picked four wireless chargers so you can stop making your iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch fight over one dorm outlet

The best back-to-school wireless chargers for dorm desks, study spaces, and travel

Computer, Electronics, Laptop

A dorm-room desk can disappear surprisingly quickly beneath a laptop charger, phone cable, Apple Watch puck, and the growing collection of adapters required to power them all. Add textbooks and other academic materials, and finding enough room to study becomes the first assignment of the semester.

A wireless charging stand can consolidate several of those cables into one station. It also gives your phone a dedicated place to sit, which helps when you are checking the time or watching a lecture. Every charger here still needs one connection to the wall. So finding a peripheral that works with all of your gadgets isn't just convenient, it's smart. I picked four models ranging from an inexpensive two-device stand to a fast 25W wireless charger capable of powering an entire Apple setup.

Phones

Your backpack needs one of these power banks before classes start

I picked 4 power banks that can survive your longest day on campus

Anker Nano 3-in-1 10,000mAh portable power bank for iPhone.

Finding an empty outlet on campus can require more patience than registering for a popular class. Common spaces like libraries or lecture halls rarely have sockets in the right places. So a good power bank gives you far more freedom. It gives you the option to choose the quiet corner of the library, work outside between classes, or even finish an assignment without worrying about your laptop's battery.

The right model depends on what you carry, since a phone needs far less power than a MacBook or gaming laptop. I picked four Anker power banks that cover everything from everyday phone charging to running several demanding devices at once.

Phones

The Minimal Phone 2 looks dramatically better than the original, and I’m genuinely here for it

Plastic is out, metal is in, and Minimal Phone 2's renders suggest the digital detox phone concept finally has the hardware to match its ambition.

Electronics, Mobile Phone, Phone

I've been following the Minimal Phone since its initial crowdfunding days. The first iteration had the right idea trapped inside the wrong body, I’d say. Plastic build, no 5G, an underwhelming camera, and e-paper ghosting that frustrated early adopters; all these issues kept the phone from reaching a wider audience.

Now, founder Armen Youssefian has posted what appears to be a 360-degree render of the Minimal Phone 2 on X, and from what I can see, the team has done its homework.