Google Translate For Android Gets Phrasebook Syncing

When in locations where the language spoken is not your own, there are some phrases you'll find yourself needing regularly – some of them urgently – and being able to pull them up on your mobile without much hassle is essential for both convenience and usability. Google Translate allows users to save sentences of their choice via Phrasebook, and with the latest Android app update, they can be synced to your handheld.

The syncing is done automatically once set up, which can be done by pulling up the Phrasebook under the Translate menu. If you're not already signed-in, you'll need to log in to your Google account via the sign-in link located at the top of the Phrasebook. If you're already signed-in, the phrases will automatically be synced, no extra effort needed. If not, the syncing will happen after you log in.

While that feature is the most notable change to the app, there's also been a "significant improvement" with the input via camera feature, with a total of 16 new languages being added: Bulgarian, Catalan, Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Croatian, Hungarian, Indonesian, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Latvian, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, and Swedish.

In case you missed it, back on March 27, Google Translate also gained an offline mode feature with support for 60 languages, among them being Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai. Users can use the app to translate words and phrases in the absence of a data connection, assuming the language packages are downloaded ahead of time. The downloads can be accessed by selecting "Offline languages" and tapping a pin next to the ones you want.

[via Google]