Google Translate has been a very useful site but I haven’t had many chances to use it while traveling.

There was one time that I could recall when I needed to communicate at a hotel in Konya, Turkey where Google Translate came in handy. I went behind the reception desk and typed back and forth on the site. Not the easiest way to have a conversation but it worked!

I came across an article from the New York Times which reports some potentially useful updates to the Google Translate app which could help travelers.

The app can be used to translate 52 languages including the newest addition, Filipino. The Word Lens feature will now offer simplified and traditional Chinese. To use this feature, “users can hold their smartphone camera over a word, sign, menu or photo in 29 languages and instantly see a translation,” according to the Times.

There are some other updates but the biggest and most useful one I’d say is being able to use it without data or WiFi in offline mode on iOS and Android devices. This can definitely save users money by “potentially eliminating the high price of data“.

Have you used Google Translate while traveling?

Find out more about updates to Google Translate here.