Google Translator arrives in Google Maps: what changes

Thanks to the integration with Traduttore, Google Maps will make it easier to "read" names and directions in other non-Latin languages. Here's how

A new feature of Google Maps is coming, by the end of November, and will make travelers happy: Google has in fact begun to integrate its Translator within the maps and navigation app. Our smartphone will soon be able to pronounce the name of monuments and points of interest that we can't even read.

This means that, directly from within Google Maps, we will be able to take advantage of some of Translate's "services" in order to better use the app and, above all, to facilitate travel in places where we speak an unknown language. Just think of all the Asian languages, or those of Eastern Europe. Google has been offering Maps users automatic translation of reviews of places of interest and businesses for some time now, but this new feature is a real step forward that can help us a lot when we're traveling.

Google Maps and Translate together: how it works

The new feature will be activated automatically when Maps detects that the language (and especially the alphabet) in which the streets, squares and points of interest we want to go to are written is different from the one set in the app.

If we are in Moscow with an Italian smartphone and we want to visit Lobnoe mesto, a monument just a few steps from Red Square, when we tap on the tab of this point of interest we read its name in Latin alphabet (but we don't know how to pronounce it), underneath we read the equivalent in Cyrillic (and we don't know how to read it) and underneath again the address in English. If we wanted to reach this place by cab we'd have a problem: if the taxi driver doesn't speak English he wouldn't understand where we want to go: to make him understand we'd have to put our smartphone in his hand. And this is where the new function comes in: a button with a speaker icon, which makes our smartphone say the name of the monument in Russian.

The same function can also be used to ask for information, or to book a museum ticket in a local ticketing agency. In short, it's a great convenience, and it won't be the only one: from within the Maps app, in fact, we can launch Translator directly if we need to converse with someone, perhaps to get an explanation of how to walk to Lobnoe mesto.