Google Translate gets Live Translate background mode

Being able to act as a real-time interpreter is one of Google Translate’s greatest strengths, thanks to its impressive Live Translate mode. Today the company shares the latest ways it’s making that already powerful mode even better.

When you’re trying to do something when traveling like check into a hotel, or get information from someone about a destination on a map, it’s easy to run into a bit of a problem — you want to use Live Translate to help you quickly understand the person you’re talking to, but you also need to keep checking info from another app on your phone. Wouldn’t it be great if Live Translate could simply run in the background, so you didn’t need to keep the Translate app on top?

Google has finally realized the benefit of this arrangement, and is introducing background Live Translate on Android. This way you can jump around between apps all you want, looking up info or taking notes, without interrupting your translation session.

While background mode is for Android, Google’s also got a little Translate treat for its iOS users. You might recall that earlier this summer, Google introduced a new “listening mode” for Translate on Android, letting you get the benefits of Live Translate without needing a pair of headphones — you just hold the phone to your ear like you’re on a call, and hear translated speech through your phone’s speaker. That’s now no longer an Android exclusive, with the feature now rolling out for iPhone owners, too.

You can check out both these new additions on smartphones now. We can’t wait to see the next ways Google Translate makes cross-language communication easy and flexible.