Android users can now quickly translate text in any app

It also added Chinese to its Word Lens app, allowing users to take a photo of text and see a translation overlaid on top of the image.

Google is making it way easier to translate text on Android: just highlight it. And for all the app already does, late previous year we got word that it was about to become even better, as Google gave it the ability to work its translation magic directly within other apps. It’s created to make it easier for folks to quickly get translations without having to go through a whole process of switching apps and pasting the text into Google Translate. This new feature helps you translate text without having to copy and paste it from another app first: Just copy text in any app and a translation will pop up in place, with no need to switch apps.

Word Lens app was developed by Quest Visual but acquired by Google, which integrated it in the Google Translate app in January past year.

The release brings enhancements especially on Android and iOS. Perhaps most notably, language translation now works offline; enabling it is as simple as selecting the packages for the languages you want to download and tapping the arrow that appears on the subsequent selection screen. The feature works in any app that lets you highlight, according to Google. Previously, these language packages were massive, but with Google working a bit of magic, they were able to shrink the packages by 90 percent.

For Android users, gone are the days of copying and pasting text on your mobile device into Google Translate.

Most notably, the iOS version now supports an offline mode, but Android also gets a handy new Tap to Translate button. It works with all of the 103 different languages already supported by Google Translate.