I was intrigued by this trending app and was impressed by such a boastful title. "Universal Translator" - maybe it's correct - if there is no other life out there in the universe then this truly is a universal translator and to be honest "language translator" and "global translator" or indeed "most languages on the planet earth translator" don't really have the same, planetary, ring to them.
My first reaction was "wow!" this really does work. It is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but in the real world this is a fantastic tool to have when travelling or indeed learning. There is very little in the settings that needs a mention as it does what it says straight out of the "download" box. The app translates from one language to another.
"Universal Translator" uses the Google API for translating languages which is very good to begin with. It is constantly being developed and tweaked as it strives for [near] perfection.
What shouts out here is the ability, as with a great deal of Android Apps, to speak into the phone and have the phone turn your speech into text and this is unfortunately what lets the software down. I would have liked the option of having an audio OR text based translation; instead, it basically follows the same layout as the Google Translate web page.
It would be really cool to have had the option to click the microphone button and have the phone speak the translation back to you in a seamless manner. If you were away somewhere you could speak your sentence in your own tongue and have the phone translate it and have the person you are talking to understand.
That would make the whole translation process automatic without having to hit the translate button and then the play button for the translation to be spoken.
This is just a minor niggle which I feel would make the software stand out beyond all the competition on Android and iPhone and something which could be implemented easily.
Overall, Universal Translator is a great app even taking my minor gripes into account. If you are planning a trip abroad or indeed learning a new language, then this app is an absolute must and for free, there is no excuse not to give it a try.
Article comments