Interpreter Mode Rolls Out to Google Home and Smart Display Devices
Photo Credit: Google
Google announced this week that Interpreter Mode is rolling out to Google Home and smart display devices. At this year’s CES Google announced the addition of Interpreter Mode to the Google Home Hub and that Hyatt had partnered to pilot the new feature at some of its hotels. Interpreter Mode enables Google Assistant devices to translate speech into another language. The translation is then spoken audibly by Google Assistant and if the device is a smart display such as Google Home Hub, the translation is also presented on the screen.
The initial announcement indicated that 27 languages are supported, and users can ask Google Assistant to “turn on interpreter mode” in order to activate the feature. However, according to the new support page for the feature, Google says users must start interpreter mode with a specific language, and only after the feature is started can users translate between more languages.
Photo Credit: Google
This note is indicative of some complaints about the feature, that the mode is too clunky to really be useful. Dan Seifert from The Verge commented, “…like we saw at CES, it’s a kludgy process that involves speaking, waiting, and then listening to the device respond. It can help in certain scenarios, but it’s not something I’d want to rely on for any lengthy or complicated conversations.” However, this wouldn’t be the first time a new feature or technology had some faults exposed during the initial launch. Interpreter Mode certainly has the potential to improve over time and today could be useful to many people, even if just for short conversations.
Hyatt is Participating in Google Assistant’s Interpreter Mode Pilot
