![]() PC Pro tested a range of apps on iOS, Android and Windows Phone with a native UK English speaker talking (and typing) to native Arabic, Finnish, French, Hindi, Kannada, Spanish, Tamil, Telugu and Turkish speakers. How we tested the best free translation apps In Translate Pro, our comment to our Finnish co-tester that North Korea reportedly claiming to have won the World Cup was “mental” was translated as “spiritual”, while thanks to Google Translate we told our Turkish co-tester someone had a court date, rather than a “trial” in the sense of testing something.Īlthough we found that most of the results from the apps and online tools tested gave you the gist of what you were trying to translate, as opposed to something that was grammatically perfect, when you consider the output of machine translation in the past, it’s a testament to how far the technology has come that these were the only howlers. No translation app is going to be 100% flawless. This can leave you with truncated sentences or words (“Neth” should be “Netherlands”), or mess with the grammar of some languages if you decide to split the sentence in two. The two main drawbacks of the app are that only 11 of the languages in Translate Pro’s database are included in “phrasebook” format, and that the number of characters you can enter is limited. It’s also easy to choose between any of the 50 languages available, and to switch backward and forward between the selected ones. Translate Pro is an easy-to-use app that can, like the other apps reviewed here, be used for on-the-fly translation, but also features a phrasebook-style menu down the left-hand side.Ĭategories include bargaining, ordering food and drink, travel, and even romance – although we can’t help but think that whipping out your iPhone before asking “may I kiss you?” may spoil the mood a bit. While it’s great to have an app that’s so comprehensive, including offline functionality, our one complaint would be that the voice-recognition aspect is limited to four continental European languages, plus US and UK English. We found the camera function particularly cool, although you do have to make sure you have the words lined up correctly to get a translation that makes sense. The app takes phrases for translation via the keyboard, camera and voice recognition, and offline packs can be downloaded and accessed if you have no internet connection – handy for when you’re travelling.Īlso, while not as comprehensive as Google Translate’s list of languages, it has a solid selection available, encompassing a good geographical range. ![]() ![]() Best free translation app all-rounderīing Translator was far and away the best all-in-one free translation app we tried it’s disappointing that it’s only available on Windows Phone. However, for simple “phrasebook”-style translations it can’t be faulted, and the accuracy of the translation is also extremely high. Bizarrely, it also lists Afrikaans as “African”.Īlso of note is the fact that Speak&Translate struggled with longer, more complex sentences. ![]() The only serious limitation is in the range of languages available – we couldn’t test any of the Indian languages – and that the voice is very robotic. The UI is also aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. It easily understood our test sentences, but when it did interpret us incorrectly the first time, a second attempt was normally all it took to set it straight. This app beat all the others when it comes to voice recognition. This is particularly useful for us Brits, since US-only English often gets confused by our plummy accents. One of the major benefits of this translation app is that it offers different dialects of the same language – there are four versions of English available, and two each of French, Spanish and Portuguese. The app will then show on the screen what it heard you say and read out a translation, which it also displays onscreen. Select your two languages from a sidebar, tap the flag of the language you speak and say whatever it is you want translated. Speak&Translate is great for speech recognition and translation. Best free translation app for voice recognition
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