Microsoft Introduces Translator App

So how does it stack up?

Microsoft Translate supports over 50 languages, so you should be able to travel the world with no problems. It has released a couple of apps for smartwatches, both for Android and the Apple Watch.

Obviously, this app will be compared to Google’s own offering. It allows them to speak directly to their smartwatch in order to obtain a translation in any of the 50 languages they select. What’s great is that the app speaks out the phrase for users of the smartwatch, and has both translations and settings coordinated between a user’s smartwatch and mobile. You can also and copy and paste text from and to other apps for translation. You can now dictate notes onto the app just by saying “OK Google, take a note”.

Microsoft Translator is an app not unlike Google Translate, you speak into the device in your native language and it can translate that to one of the many languages that it supports. Users can download the app immediately onto their choice of device from their respective app stores.

Android Wear apps rely on some fairly generic swipes, swipe right for more, left for back or to close for instance, and there’s not much you can do with an interface, really. And at the Google Play store, a total of 426 reviews have also earned the app a 4.5 rating. With these smart devices, we want to learn how people use the apps and how effective the translation experiences can be. You can easily switch between typing or speaking the words you want translated. “And with always-on screen support, your map view remains on your wrist in battery-saving mode, even when you’re not actively looking at your screen”. The app did not offer spoken translations in certain languages, such as Hebrew, Thai and Vietnamese.

In terms of accuracy, I’m going on a trip to Japan later this month, and I’ve been in the process of learning the language for the past couple of months.