Google Assistant is getting an interpreter mode for translation

Google is rolling out an interpreter mode to Google Assistant.

Using a command like, “Hey Google, help me speak Japanese” invokes the interpreter mode. A Google Home Hub will display text on screen in real time and read out the complete phrase in the chosen language when finished. The second person will then be able to speak in the chosen language and the Assistant will read back what they said in your language.

A few problems are still yet to be ironed out – if participants are too quick to reply, Google Assistant may miss part of the conversation, and people talking over each other can also be problematic.

Machine translation is still imperfect, but the interpreter mode is a step forward from other current solutions like typing out conversations via Google Translate.

The interpreter mode is currently available at select hotels in the United States, but will make its way to other devices worldwide throughout the coming months.

Currently the interpreter supports 27 languages including Chinese, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Swedish, among others.