Google Translate’s upcoming face-to-face mode makes live translations easier

Apps like Google Translate have helped immensely in breaking down the language barriers you might encounter when traveling or doing business in a foreign country. It helps you translate text, photos, and even voices, but if you’ve ever tried to have a real-time translated conversation, it isn’t quite as efficient as it could be.

In an upcoming change spotted in the app by @AssemblyDebug on X, it has been revealed that Google is introducing a new mode and a slight UI change to its Google Translate app. This new mode is called “Face-to-Face” and basically what it does is that it turns half of the UI upside down.

Google Translate is getting a whole new bunch of features and UI improvements with V7.12. These may be not be available for everyone for now, but expect it to roll out soon. Here is list of features –#Android #Google pic.twitter.com/UCGv1bY1LY

— AssembleDebug (@AssembleDebug) August 29, 2023

The idea is that one side will face the speaker, and the other side will face the other speaker, so that when you’re having a conversation, the text that is being translated will be facing them. This is versus the current Google Translate conversation mode where the text is facing the same direction which means that depending on how you are seated, you may have to pass the phone back and forth.

The change also puts the microphone button right in the middle of the app, making it accessible to both parties. While it’s not a massive feature overhaul, we reckon it’s a pretty nice quality of life update that should make having real-time translated conversations a lot easier.

The face-to-face mode feature isn’t live yet but the post suggests that it could be coming soon.