Google Translate Enhances Language Learning with AI

Google is leveraging Gemini AI to enhance the capabilities of Google Translate. The app now allows users to practice new languages by creating personalized listening and speaking practice sessions in their preferred language. This feature is reminiscent of Duolingo but without its iconic mascot.

Matt Sheets, a product manager at Google, stated in a blog post on Tuesday, "Whether you're an early learner looking to begin practicing conversation or an advanced speaker looking to brush up on vocabulary for an upcoming trip, Translate can now create tailored listening and speaking practice sessions just for you." These interactive practices are generated on-the-fly and intelligently adapt to your skill level.

Getting started is straightforward. Open the Google Translate app, select 'practice,' set your skill level and goals, and the app will create a scenario specifically for you.

In each scenario, users can either listen to conversations and tap the words they hear to build comprehension or practice speaking with helpful hints available when needed. Google Translate tracks progress with each lesson.

Following positive feedback from early testers, the beta experience is being rolled out more broadly in the Translate app for Android and iOS this week. Initially, it is available for English speakers practicing Spanish and French, as well as for Spanish, French, and Portuguese speakers practicing English.

Google also announced other updates to its language learning tools, such as real-time translations in the Translate app. All these updates stem from Google's AI and machine learning, which have contributed to significant advancements in translation quality, multimodal translation, and text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities.

Every month, people translate around 1 trillion words across Google Translate, Search, and in visual translations in Lens and Circle to Search. Now, thanks to AI, overcoming language barriers is becoming even more effortless.