Google Translate Powers In-App Translations in Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Google has announced that it will enable in-app translations via its Google Translate app for Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The company has announced that the users on the latest OS beginning this week will be able to translate in 90 languages right within any app.

The new feature will allow users to translate a piece of text in a different language via use of Android text selection which will now show 'Translate' option in addition to regular options such as Copy, Share, and Select All. With this new in-app translation feature, Android 6.0 Marshmallow users running the latest Google Translate app will be able to translate right from within any app.

Announcing the news, Barak Turovsky, Product Lead, Google Translate adds that Android apps that use Android text selection will automatically have this feature enabled. For developers that enabled custom text selection behavior for their apps, Turovsky has detailed some steps to add the feature. He stresses that adding the translation option to apps text selection menu if Android text selection behaviour is not default is easy and takes just a few extra lines of code.

Android 6.0 Marshmallow users however have to make sure that when a user is composing a text to translate, the app should keep the selection when the Translate app is triggered.

The company in a blog post also claimed that the Google Translate app is now being used by over 500 million people every month and translating more than 100 billion words every day.