Google Translate for Android has just updated to version 5.0 with new features. A most important and useful feature in this update is ‘Tap to Translate’, which lets you translate text within any app on the fly. For example, you can use ‘Tap to Translate’ feature to quickly translate WhatsApp conversion if one of your contacts texting in a foreign language.
In this guide we show you how to activate Tap to Translate’ feature and use this feature to translate text with in any app. You can copy text (chat, comment, song lyric, etc.) from any app and translate it to another language using this feature. You do not need to open the Google Translate app to translate text.
How to activate Tap to Translate feature
1. Update your Google Translate app to latest version (v5.0) [HERE]. It requires Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and above.
2. Open Google Translate app, tap the menu (3 vertical bar) and tap on Settings
2. Tap on ‘Tap to Translate’ option and on the next page enable it.
How to translate text from an app
1. Open any app, for example, WhatsApp
2. Select the text you want to translate and tap ‘Copy’ option.
4. In the top right corner of the screen, you will see a translate button. Just tap it and the translation shows in a translate window inside the app. That’s it!
Another notable feature in this update is the size of offline language packs. It has now reduced considerably and now it weighs just around 20MB. It was around 200MB earlier. This certainly saves storage space. Offline translate is definitely a helping feature while travelling abroad without a mobile data plan.
Also, the ‘Word Lens’ Camera Translation function of Google Translate has now enriched by adding Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) language support.
