Google Translate is one of the most widely used translation tools on the Internet. It works with dozens of languages, more than most of its competitors, and with impressive accuracy.
Unfortunately, when people think of Google Translate, they mostly imagine it as a text-only translation tool. But he can do much more. You can use it to translate audio files or live speech from one language to another at impressive speed. If you’ve never tried it, here’s how.
Use Google Translate to translate audio files on mobile
One of the best things about Google Translate is that you can access it on all major computing platforms. Unlike some Google Translate alternatives, whether you’re using a desktop, tablet or mobile device, regardless of brand or operating system, as long as you can use a browser on it, you should be able to access the service.
If you plan to use it to translate an audio file, using your mobile device is a good option. Although you can access the service from a mobile web browser, the app is better suited for this task. To get started, head over to the Google Play Store or Apple App Store and download the Android or iOS version of the app.
Fetch : Google Translate for Android | iOS (free)
So let’s say you want to interpret an English audio file from Spanish on the app you’ll need:
- Launch the Google Translate app.
- You will find two languages at the bottom of the screen. One on the left (English) and the other on the right (Spanish). If your target language is not the default, tap the left language and select the one you want to translate from. Then tap on the correct language and select the language you want to translate to.
- Tap the microphone button at the bottom of the screen.
- Use another phone or media player to play the source audio file or start speaking after the audio.
- When you finish speaking or playing the audio file, a screen will appear showing the interpretation and transcription of your audio file or voice recording in both languages.
- Tap the small speaker icon above the interpreted text to listen to your voice recording in the new language.
For best results, hold your phone as close as possible to the source of the audio file being played. Also try slowing down the audio file for more accurate results. A good app to slow down the tempo of an audio file on your smartphone is Music Speed Changer for iOS and Android.
Translate audio file without pause
While the above steps help you work with short bursts of audio conversations, the app will interrupt you intermittently to provide an interpretation of your speech or audio file as soon as it notices a short pause in the audio inputs.
Therefore, any short pause can trigger unnecessary interruptions, even when you are trying to deliver a long speech or a pre-recorded audio file. This can be particularly annoying.
To resolve this issue:
- When working on a long speech or pre-recorded audio conversations, tap the microphone button at the bottom of the Google Translate app screen. Transcriber which is just over.
- This should activate Google Translate’s transcription mode. In transcription mode, you will be able to take long breaks without being interrupted. You can also save the transcribed text for future reference. To do this, simply tap the star icon in the upper right corner of the transcription results screen.
Using Google Translate to interpret conversations in real time
If you find yourself in situations where you need to use an unfamiliar language in a real-time conversation, Google Translate can be very useful. To translate a conversation in real time from Spanish to English and from English to Spanish with Google Translate, you must e.g. follow these steps:
- On the home screen of your Google Translate app, select the source language and translation language. In this case, Spanish or English can be the source or translation language, as you will need to translate from one to the other in a two-way conversation.
- Now press on Conversation in the lower left corner of the app screen.
- Tap to translate audio from Spanish to English Spanish at the bottom of the screen, then speak. When you finish speaking, you will get your results in English.
- Similarly, to work with English to Spanish assignments, press English bottom of the screen and start speaking. When you want to have a conversation with someone, you can take turns speaking according to each user’s language.
Using Google Translate to translate audio files on the desktop
Whether you’re using a Mac, Linux, Chromebook, or Windows PC, you should be able to interpret an MP3 or audio file of any type using Google Translate from your desktop browser. To interpret audio files or direct speech using Google Translate on a desktop computer:
- Visit translate.google.com from your computer browser.
- When the page is loaded, you will find two fields, one for the source language (on the left) and one for the translation (on the right). Click on one of the languages in the left box that matches the language of your audio file. Click the drop-down menu to see other languages if you can’t find your preferred language in the default settings.
- In the box on the right, click on the language you want the audio file translated into. Likewise, if you can’t find your preferred default languages, click the drop-down menu to open a larger list of languages.
- Then click the microphone button in the lower left corner of the first box.
- Play the audio file you want to interpret from your smartphone or any other media player.
Google Translate is more than just text translation
Interpreting texts, web pages and documents is the most popular use for Google Translate. However, it is not just a text translation service. You can translate pretty much any audio file into any language you want, as long as Google Translate actively supports voice translation into that language.