Google Translate app on Android has been updated to include offline support for 50 languages, as well as vertical text translation for Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages.
Google announced the update on its blog, stating the update is compatible with devices running Android 2.3 Gingerbread and up. The new version is available at the Google Play store.
Users can select Offline Languages in the app menu to see all the language packages available for download. To enable offline translation between any two languages, you need to select them both in the offline languages menu.
The offline support is a departure for Google, which has been on a cloud-based trajectory for most of its services for some time. On its blog, Google posted that "offline models are less comprehensive than their online equivalents" but still says they get the job done "when you are traveling abroad with poor reception or without mobile data access."
The new Google Translate app is aimed at travelers, who can now use it without being concerned over finding a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Google has added vertical text support when taking pictures of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages. These languages were added in the last release, but only for horizontal text.
Although Google Translate is compatible with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and above, as TheNextWeb points out, earlier versions of the Android OS such as Froyo, are no longer supported. Gingerbread is the OS version of a reported 40 percent of Android users.
