What is Google Translate for iPhone and how many languages it supports for voice translation.

When in 2008 Google launched its improved translating application for iOS phones and pads – Google Translate - everyone was so excited because it looked like a dream coming true – a sort of a Universal translator from Star Trek, mainly due to the innovative speech-to-text option letting a user getting a translation without typing but pronouncing . Google Translate became the native iOS app very quickly. Currently this application supports 64 languages for text translation, 24 languages for text-to-speech translating and so far 17 languages for speech-to-text (voice input) translations.

For voice input translations of Google Translate for iPhone are currently available such languages: Korean, Indonesian, Dutch, Turkish, German, Italian, Afrikaans, English, Chinese, French, Japanese, Latin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Malay and Spanish.

How you can currently use Google Translate on your iPhone?

Currently you can purchase in the AppStore the latest installment of Google Translate (v.1.3.1) where were added in addition to the main features such options as Esperanto translation, the ability to tap for copying translated text and 2 languages for text-to-speech translation – Thai and Slovak.

Having on your iPhone Google Translate technically you will be able to:

• use text translations for understanding more than 60 languages;

• apply speech-to-text translations (for more detailed information on how to use the voice input translations visit this page);

• get voiced translations of your typed text in a full screen mode;

• record the history of your translations and bookmark favorite translations.

Practically, there are some problems that have to be taken into account.

The most common problems referred to speech-to-text function of Google Translate

Despite all these pros of Google Translate for iPhone there are still few obvious lacks when it comes to using speech-to-text options. First of all, not all languages are recognized correctly. For example, Thai dialects are often understood in a wrong way by mobile Google Translate as well as Japanese accents. Another problem is that you have to speak very loud and very distinctively in order to let the program recognize your native language and translate it properly. Voice-recognition software by Google may be a breakthrough but it is obviously far from perfection. However, if you speak perfect and fluent British English or Spanish you won’t have such problems.

In spite of all mentioned above problems Google Translate for iPhone is one of the most advanced translating mobile applications. You can download this application for free from the AppStore by following THIS LINK. Your smartphone or tablet has to support at least iOS 3.0.