This is great news for all world-travelers that do not currently own a Pixel smartphone! As of this past weekend, Google now has updated Google Translate to enable all Android smartphones to take advantage of the real-time Google Translate feature while using any Google Assistant equipped headphones (instead of just Pixel phones and Pixel Buds).
Real-Time Google Translate Now Available on All Android Phones
What Is “Real-Time Google Translate” And How Is It Different?
If you ever needed to translate a word on the go, you know about Google Translate. So, how is real-time translation different with Google Translate? Last year, Google launched their real-time language translation with the Pixel 2 phones to enable people to speak back and forth with someone in a different language.
All they needed was a Pixel smartphone and PixelBuds and two could actually carry on a conversation (one person would hear the translation in the headphones and have their reply sent through the earbuds to the phone to play out in the other language via the phone’s speakers).
I tried this in several language combinations with native language speakers and it worked really, really well! This is a huge help for anyone that is venturing to a foreign country and I use it quite a bit myself.
No More Pixel Phone-Only for Real-Time Language Translation!
The problem for many people was what you needed to get started – a Pixel smartphone and PixelBuds. Getting both would set you back a minimum of $800 so if you had a different smartphone, that was not something you would want to do just for language translation!
What Do You Need for Real-Time Google Translate?
Smartphone
You can use Android phones like the popular Samsung phones for real-time Google Translate
However, Google has now made it possible to use the Android OS with any Google Assistant headphones to accomplish that same real-time language translation. That means if you have any of the other popular phones from manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Huawei, Sony, or others, you already have the most expensive part of the language combo.
Headphones/Earbuds
Headphones like the noise-cancelling Bose QuietComfort 35 II can now be used with real-time translation!
The second thing you will need to have real-time language translation is the Google Assistant headphones. These are headphones that specifically have Google Assistant capability so do make sure you grab the right ones.
Probably the cheapest would be the Google wired earbuds for USB-C (I do not currently own a Samsung phone so I am not 100% sure if the USB-C port on those phones works with headphones or not?) at $30.
Going up from there, you have the very popular Bose QuietComfort 35 II headphones (that many travelers already own for their awesome noise cancelling) as well as headphones like:
- Sony WI-1000X round the neck earbuds
- Sony WH1000XM2 headphones
- JBL Everest 100GA earbuds
- JBL Everest 710GA headphones
With many of these being good for travel or outdoor activity, they can give you the dual purpose of helping you to have more language translating power while traveling yet also giving you quality on your ears for the trip and to drown out the noise.
This is really great news and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Google port this feature over to iOS at some point as well (depending on what it uses with the Android OS).
HT: Droid Life
can I watch greek tv and have it translated to me in English?
I would imagine you could have the phone do a constant translation.