Google improves Translate with offline AI

Google isn't going to sit idly by while Microsoft brings AI-based offline translation to your phone. The company is rolling out internet-free neural machine translation to its Translate apps for Android and iOS, promising much more accurate language conversion when you don't have the luxury of data. The initial release covers 58 languages, including a slew of European and Indian languages as well as common translation targets like Arabic, Chinese and Japanese.

Despite the improved accuracy, the app shouldn't chew up too much of your valuable device space. Each language takes about 30MB to 40MB , Google said. And you don't need a powerful device, either -- this should work with "low-end" phones.

The smarter offline feature is only available for about one percent of all Translate users as of today, but it should reach 99 percent of them by the 13th and everyone by the 15th. So long as you don't need it right away, you should have everything you need to find the washrooms on your next vacation.