Polytalk Translate

This app enables quick translation of phrases either types in using the device keyboard or else recited verbally using the voice to text feature of Android.

The app translates from English into the target language selected from the dropdown menu. There are a dozen language options all of which use mostly the traditional alphabet.

The languages choices are french, spanish, german, italian, portuguese, dutch, polish, turkish, czechoslovakian, danish, icelandic and norwegian. Other languages such as hindi, chinese, japanese and russian are not yet supported by the app but may become available in a future update.

The app 'back-tranlates' the result into English and displays this so you can compare with your original wording. If the back-translation is not what you originally intended, then modify the original wording and try again.

The translated result is displayed in the target language in a scrollable text box.

If you wish to here the translated result read aloud, then tap the bottom button, Read Translation Aloud.

NOTE: To ensure best results from the text-to-speech feature, you may need to download that language onto your device. Some languahes are pre-installed on many phones, but it is still a good idea to check if a download is available as it only takes a minute or two and only needs to be done once (per language choice).

To do this go to Settings>Language and Input>Text-To-Speech Output>and then tap the gear icon at the upper right corner. This takes you to another page with the option Install Voice Data. Tap this and select the target languages you intend to use.

On the TTS Voice data list, click the choice and select tap the Download arrow. Thats it.

Sometimes the text-to speech option is slow or even will not work at all. Be patient as it may take a few seconds to begin. You can tap it again if nothing happens. If the data signal is weak, the text-to-speech service is more likely to fail or be slow. Of course, you can alweays display the translated text on the screen to whoever you want to communicate with.