What is the point of the "Translate" App? Its like going back to 2010.

[d7d19285f0bd48]

For the life of me, I cannot figure out what market segment or value add Apple is trying to tackle or provide with the stock "Translate" App. The app itself feels like it is from before 2010.

Got excited to test it on some promotional materials I received in the mail. Nope. Cannot even perform basic translations via the camera. Can't even translate basic text.

Just stumped as to why Apple would build their own App/translation service as it literally provides no features or value to the platform.

 

[TimFL1]

The big selling point for the app is on-device translation, whether that‘s as good as online or other services remains to be seen.

It also lacks quite a few languages I‘d expect from a translator.

 

[adrianlondon]

It can work offline, but so can google translate when you download the relevant language. One thing I like is that it swaps the keyboard to the corresponding language when typing.

Not sure whether I'll use it regularly instead of the google version though.

 

[cp1160]

For the life of me, I cannot figure out what market segment or value add Apple is trying to tackle or provide with the stock "Translate" App. The app itself feels like it is from before 2010.

Got excited to test it on some promotional materials I received in the mail. Nope. Cannot even perform basic translations via the camera. Can't even translate basic text.

Just stumped as to why Apple would build their own App/translation service as it literally provides no features or value to the platform.

Well my results were not as bad as yours. It may not be pretty, but it worked. Its definitely a first release. The real time translate nailed the tests I gave it and Google Translate using prerecorded phrases to avoid differences. It was generally just as good.

Yep, no camera support. For most people that would use it, is that a real loss? Nice, not critical maybe? Google has it. I use that app frequently and NEVER use the camera. Text translate was fine, not sure why you had such bad results.

Overall, the real time worked well though, about the same as Google Translate. The pasted text was decent, sure, not the same as Google, but who ever said Google had the best translator? None of them are exceptional IMHO.

 

[itsmilo]

I have an annoying bug that if I copy paste a text, it doesn’t do anything like it doesn’t start translating or anything. The text just sits there, untranslated (is that a word?)

 

[aenflex]

It’s been super helpful for me while I’m taking my first Spanish class. Especially with pronunciation. It would also be super helpful when trying to converse with someone and neither of you speak the other’s language. We travel in Europe here and there and while lots of people speak English, there are also lots of pockets where they don’t.