Google Translate Might Actually Teach You A New Language

We’ve all used Google Translate at some point in time to help translate a word or phrase. It’s probably the most popular translator on the planet. Well, Google might be planning on pushing this app from being a simple translator to being a teacher. Google Translate might teach you a new language.

At this point, we can’t say that the company is doing this for sure. It was discovered during an APK deep dive (via Android Authority). Google hid code for this app in the most recent version, but that doesn’t guarantee that it will launch the feature. It’s currently in testing, so you’ll want to take this news with a grain of salt.

We pretty much know how Google Translate works. We put a word in on one side, and we get the translation on the other side. It’s useful when you need a quick translation; however, if you need to learn the actual language, you’ll go elsewhere. It looks like Google doesn’t like this, as the company has some changes possibly coming to the app.

According to the code found in Google Translate v9.7.102, Google could bring a new “Practice” feature to the app. At this point, there’s still some information in the dark. However, with a name like “Practice”, we can guess that this feature will let you practice a new language.

The folks at Android Authority were able to get the feature working to a certain extent. In the screenshot below, we see the new Practice button on the interface. As for what the button does, that’s still a mystery. When pressed, the app tries to load a webpage, but it never loads.

There is one bit of information, however. When trying to use the Practice feature, the app will ask for access to your microphone. That means that the app will listen to you pronounce the word to see if you said it correctly. We’re sure that it will use some AI trickery to make sure you’re saying the world properly.

Looking at the screenshot, we also see the text “Practice with activities made just for you!” This means that Google is planning on adding fun activities to its translation app. This is similar to what Duolingo does, and we know that it will feel the impact of the Google Translate Practice feature.

At this point, we don’t know too much about this feature. However, since Google I/O is right around the corner, there’s a chance that the company will mention it.