Microsoft Translator Can Now Translate Text Images

Translating text from one language to another isn’t that hard and there are probably a ton of translation apps available at the moment. However translating a language from an image to text isn’t quite as common, although Google Translate has had the feature for several years, made even better thanks to their acquisition of Word Lens.

That being said, it looks like Microsoft’s Translator app for Android is finally catching up because according to reports, the app has recently received an update in which it will now be able to translate text found in images. Basically it seems to work similarly to Google Translate, in which you point your phone’s camera at the image whose text you want to translate, and the translated text will appear in an overlay.

Right now there are 21 different languages supported, although if you can’t be bothered to fiddle with the settings, the app can automatically detect the language you’re trying to translate. It is also capable of translating text without users having to leave their current screen, although the only downside to this is that users will need to have the latest version of Android installed (Android 6.0 Marshmallow or higher).

Given that Marshmallow is only installed on about 4.6% of Android devices at the moment, it seems that many Android users won’t be able to take advantage of that feature. In any case the update is available via the Google Play store so head on over if you’d like to check it out.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Android, Apps, Microsoft