For a large number of tourists, language barriers can prevent them from having a great vacation. In this case, smartphone translation apps come to the rescue. However, not all of them cope well with the task.
Experts from the Which.co.uk portal have identified the best translation apps that you can install on your smartphone for free. They can make it easier to communicate with people from other countries.
To determine the best apps, experts asked native speakers of Hindi, Italian, and Polish to test four of the most popular free text and speech translation apps – Google Translate, Apple Translate, Microsoft Translator, and DeepL. The experts tested how these services translate spoken language.
During the tests, there were a few funny translations. For example, when translating from English to Hindi the sentence “Yes, you can buy bus tickets from the driver, but only without change, although it is better to use the machines at the bus stop,” the Microsoft Translator app advised “Buy a bus from a person.”
Experts emphasized that Google Translate is the only translation app that supports 243 languages. You can even find Manx and Malaysian languages in it, which are not available in competitors.
In addition, Google Translate can be used without an Internet connection. To do this, it is enough to download offline dictionaries in advance.
According to experts, DeepL quite often surpassed Google Translate in terms of translation accuracy. However, this application supports only 33 languages, most of which are European. Another disadvantage of the service is that it cannot be used without an Internet connection.
Apple Translate experts called the worst of all the tested translation applications. They noted that this service made many mistakes and contains much fewer languages than its competitors.
Microsoft Translator experts called it a completely good application. According to them, this service does a great job of translating spoken language, but mistakes are made when translating text.
Verdict: experts recommend installing the Google Translate or DeepL. They emphasized that DeepL often offers more accurate translations, but Google Translate includes more languages, which expands the list of countries in which it will be useful.