Who hasn’t used Google Translate, right? Almost everyone has, even if it’s just to translate simple questions. But did you know that around 1 trillion words are translated every month? Here’s some interesting trivia shared by Google in conjunction with Google Translate’s 20th anniversary.
According to Google, people translate around 1 trillion words every month and the most frequently translated phrases are simple expressions that reflect human relationships such as “Thank you”, “How are you?”, “I love you”, “Hello” and “Please”. The app is also now used by over 1 billion users every month, making it one of the most widely used translation tools in the world. At the same time, Google Translate also supports nearly 250 languages and over 60,000 language pairs, including indigenous languages.
Daily usage also shows that many people use Google Translate to learn new languages, with 1/3 of users using it as a learning tool. Almost half of weekly users also take advantage of the “Practice” feature for speaking practice, while more than a third of Live translate sessions last more than five minutes, proving that there is a more meaningful conversation.
There are also several new features that are gaining attention. Among them is Pronunciation practice, which is pronunciation practice with instant feedback, which is currently available in a few selected countries only. Next, the Live translate feature via headphones allows users to maintain the tone and rhythm of the original voice when communicating, thus making the conversation more natural and easy to understand.
Meanwhile, Visual Translation with Google Lens makes it easier for users to understand menus or signs when traveling, while Circle to Search on Android allows text or images to be marked for instant translation. Not to mention, Google Translate can also be used without an internet connection by downloading the preferred language to make it more practical when in areas without coverage.
Google also shared several other interesting facts including the most popular language pairs being English–Spanish followed by English–Indonesian, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, and several Indian languages such as Hindi, Bengali, and Malayalam. Interestingly, emoji are now considered a kind of global language with the demand for translation into emoji form increasing.
