Google Translate for iPhone 1.3.0

Google Translate has been available as an online tool for some time, but an iOS app has been a long time coming. With support for a range of languages, speech-to-text and text-to-speech, things bode well for the app, but translation tools are notoriously easy to trip up, particularly when voice recognition comes into play.

The number of supported languages extends to an impressive 57, ranging from the more common such as English and French, to Swahili and Yiddish.

While the app can translate between all these languages, not all of the translation modes are available for each one. For example, translation using the speech-to-text feature is only supported in 15 languages and the option to have translations read aloud is supported in 23. When it comes to translating typed text, success rates improve dramatically, but this is dependent on your ability to spell correctly.

When text has been translated, it can be 'starred' to allow for easy access in the future, and you can also enlarge the text into full screen mode to make it easier to show the translation to others – great when you are abroad and don’t fancy the idea of chancing your accent. While the app requires an internet connection to make translations, any text that has been 'starred' is stored offline so it can be accessed at any time.