HOW TO Understand and be understood

1 Start translating fast

To start using Translate pick the language you want to translate from – say English – and then tap the second drop-down to pick the language that you want to translate to, eg Italian. Then simply type your word or phrase.

2 Make it big

If you tap on the enlarge icon at the bottom left of the translated text, the Translate app will change its display mode to show really big text. That’s really handy for situations where the person you’re talking to can’t really hear you.

3 Learn as you go

Everyday’s a school day with the Translate app; tap on a word in the text and it’ll bring up the Dictionary to tell you its meaning and some of its variants – here, looking up ‘good’ brings up these Italian examples.

4 Talk, don’t type

If you’re in a reasonably quiet environment, tap the microphone icon and you can talk instead of type. This feature works brilliantly but it’s a little bit impatient; if you pause, it’ll assume you’re finished and stop listening to you.

5 See what you said

As soon as you’ve finished talking, the Translate app will take you back to the same screen as before. Whether you typed it or used your voice, the translated text can be read aloud if you tap on the Play button (right of the translation box).

6 Check your history

As you translate different words and phrases, the app keeps track so you can refer back. Swipe down on the current translation to see what you’ve already translated. If you’d like to hear it read out, tap it to make it the current translation.

7 Have a chat

If you tap on the Conversation icon and then the side-by-side icon you’ll see something that feels genuinely magical; real time two-way conversation in a splitscreen display that enables each of you to speak and see each other translated.

8 Create pictographics

Translate can turn your text into pictographic languages such as Chinese or Korean. If there’s a possible ambiguity in the results, the app may ask you to refine your phrase; sometimes words can have multiple possible translations.

9 Download for offline

You can’t be sure of getting a data signal when you travel, so it’s a very good idea to use the Manage Languages option to download the language(s) you’ll need for any trip. It’s in the drop-down for choosing the destination language.