The iOS update inaugurates Translate, a new translation application to make your iPhone your best ally for understanding and making yourself understood in a foreign language.
The application is not widely talked about and yet Translate, the translation application introduced in iOS 14 should serve many users who are not fortunate enough to be multilingual.
Translating will help you express yourself in eleven languages, both online and offline, with tools that allow you to have a natural conversation, translated in real time for your interlocutor. And if you were to ask the same questions frequently, it will save some translated phrases and expressions so you can find them easily.
1. Download languages ​​for offline use
Translate can work in two ways: either through the cloud, and therefore through Apple’s servers, which will necessarily require an Internet connection, or directly on your iPhone. For the latter, however, you must first download the language packs you will need.
Open the app and tap Download Languages ​​or tap directly on one of the languages ​​selected by default at the top of the screen. Scroll down to the Languages ​​Available Offline section, and tap the download icon to locally download the languages ​​you need.
Take this opportunity to check that Automatic detection is activated so that the application automatically detects the two languages ​​in which the text is spoken.
2. Translate text or voice
Translate can translate both text and voice on the fly. You can therefore enter text in your language directly in the field provided for this purpose, or press the microphone icon to speak a sentence to be translated.
The translation is almost instantaneous and is then displayed just below your sentence. Turn up your iPhone and press the Play button to hear your iPhone say the translation with perfect accent. You can, if you wish, add certain translations to Favorites by pressing the appropriate icon.
The translations carried out are recorded in a history (Recent) available in the favorites tab
3. Translate in conversation mode
If you absolutely must use Translate during a conversation, hold your iPhone in landscape mode to display each of the languages ​​in the conversation on either side of the screen. Each interlocutor will then only have to press in turn on the icon representing a microphone to speak in their language, before Translate executes the translation in real time.
It is also from this mode that you can activate Attention mode, by pressing the icon to display the translation in full screen. This will allow you to display only the translation on a more readable screen that you just need to show to your interlocutor to make you understood.
4. Display the definition of a word in the dictionary
Translating is not just limited to simple translation. Do you have a problem with a word or phrase in a sentence? The application offers you to consult its definition in a dictionary.
All you have to do is tap a word for its definition to be displayed in a floating pane, the dictionary, which can be fully deployed for full screen display.
Finally, Translate is also integrated in Safari under iOS 14 to translate the content of web pages. In principle accessible directly from the Aa menu, present in the Safari address bar, do not waste your time looking for the function for now. You won’t find it. For now, it is only realistically available in the United States and Canada.