Microsoft has updated the Microsoft Translator app for iOS and Android to provide improved communications between folk speaking different languages. The updated tool is powered by the same technology behind Skype Translator and Office programs. Microsoft's latest innovation is to provide faster, more fluid communication by pairing a device with a wearable.
To see how the paired handheld device and wearable work, to facilitate multi-language real-time communications, you can watch Microsoft's promotional video above. In brief, a user runs the Microsoft translator app on both a smartphone and wearable then pairs them. Handing over the smartphone to the conversational partner, anything said into one's wearable gets translated into the target language on the smartphone display. The smartphone holder can read and respond in natural language which gets displayed in your language on the wearable device display (in the video example; a smartwatch).
Languages supported by the software include; English, Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Other than conversational use Microsoft Translator can be used to translate text, documents, webpages, and even restaurant menus and street signs. The tool can be used offline.
Microsoft says that it has also implemented this translation engine into Word Online plus the Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher and Visio desktop apps.
