Back in the day, travelling to another country was not as easy as today. Especially if you travelled to a different country where people did not speak English. The only way to have communicated with local people was by doing courses beforehand, practicing using a language dictionary, or an interpreter. There were no voice translation apps at that time.
Now you have technology in your hand to obtain easy translations during your travel journey to make communicating with anyone a breeze. No need to worry about language barriers with the local people. By downloading translation apps on your mobile phone, with a simple swipe of your fingers, you can communicate easily using a translation app. From typing to voice translation it is indeed a new experience to try that makes travelling so much easier and more enjoyable. With a voice translation app you can have a basic conversation as it automatically translates your words into the native language of the country you are in.
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But wait! There are hundreds of voice translation apps out there. Which one are the best apps for you to download?
Don’t worry, here are 4 best recommendation voice translations apps for you. Of course there are free apps you can download available for Android and IOS.
Google Translate
Who doesn’t know Google translate? Google translate was built as a complimentary translation service by Google. It can translate words into whole phrases and sentences on a web page. Now it’s in your hands.
Built-in user-friendly interface makes Google translate easy to navigate. Google translates over 100++ languages by typing. It also has a nifty instant camera feature that allows you to translate a photo or image of text into the native language of your choice. It also allows bilingual conversation and offline translation.
Let’s focus on Google translate in the voice translation section only. Before you arrive at your destination make sure you downloaded this app. Surely some of you might already have experience with either typing or voice translation.
How to use voice translate by Google Translate:
- Download google translate from the Play Store (Android) or App Store (Apple)
- Choose the language you want to translate.
E.g. English To Spanish, Spanish to French, English to Bahasa
- Tap the speaker icon and wait until Google translate says “speak now”
Translate Voice Phrases in Google Translate
*Note: To test how accurate the app was, I translated common English sentences into Bahasa Indonesia, French and Spanish. I used both simple phrases and one longer sentence.
Simple phrases
- Welcome to Bali
- How are you?
- Where do you come from?
- What is your name?
- How long will you stay in Bali?
- Where do you stay?
- How much is this?
- Can I get a discount?
- I want to order some food, please.
- Where is the bathroom?
Long sentence
- Hello Mr. Smith. Welcome to Bali. How are you today? Is this your first time in Bali?
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After running a quick test on voice translation using google translate with 10 different simple phrases from English to Bahasa, French and Spanish, Google translate has about 80% accuracy with good translation and 20% with poor translation that was hard to understand. On the other hand, when translating from Bahasa Indonesia to English, Spanish to French using 10 phrases, Google Translate had 100% translation accuracy.
Pros & Cons
After using Google translate for a view times on voice translation, here are the pros and cons I found.
| Pros | Cons |
| Free | No offline mode for Voice translation |
| Easy to use, simple interface | Delay translation with unstable internet connection |
| 80% accuracy for simple phrases | A little bit laggy for long sentences |
Google Translate is recommended for translating basic phrases and simple sentences. It gives almost real-time translation with a very good internet connection. Meanwhile, if you want to try to translate long phrases the app is a little bit laggy. Unfortunately you can only use voice translation while you have an internet connection.
Overall, Google translate is still a handy tool to use especially for travelers. Good voice translation for very simple phrases or day-to-day conversation. Especially when you have a very reliable internet connection.
Translator supports the following languages
Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Belarusian, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Cebuano, Chichewa, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Corsican, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Frisian, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Khmer, Kinyarwanda, Korean, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Kyrgyz, Lao, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Luxembourgish, Macedonian, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Maori, Marathi, Mongolian, Myanmar (Burmese), Nepali, Norwegian, Odia (Oriya), Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Scots Gaelic, Serbian, Sesotho, Shona, Sindhi, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Sundanese, Swahili, Swedish, Tajik, Tamil, Tatar, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Turkmen, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Welsh, Xhosa, Yiddish, Yoruba, Zulu
Microsoft Translator
Microsoft Translation is the second recommendation for translation apps. This app is a free app to download. Microsoft Translator is a multilingual machine translator using a cloud service provided by Microsoft. Microsoft translation offers up to 70 different languages. It also has instant text translation using the camera. It also has a feature which allows you to invite a large audience for a conversation by using the link or QR code.
This app has a much more modern interface and colourful interface than the other reviewed apps like Google Translate. It is not only a great app for travelers, you can also use this app for educational purposes such as translating a document on your computer.
How To Use Microsoft Translator
- Download Microsoft Translator on Play Store (android) or Appstore (Apple)
- Chose the language you want to translate
E.g. From English to Spanish or From Spanish to English
- Tap the Speaker button then start to speak
Translate Voice Phrases
*Note: To test how accurate the app was, I translated common English sentences into Spanish. I used both simple phrases and one longer sentence.
Simple phrases
- Welcome to Bali
- How are you?
- Where do you come from?
- What is your name?
- How long will you stay in Bali?
- Where do you stay?
- How much is this?
- Can I get a discount?
- I want to order some food, please.
- Where is the bathroom?
Long sentence
- Hello Mr. Smith. Welcome to Bali. How are you today? Is this your first time in Bali?
Pros & Cons
After running a few tests on Microsoft Translator using its voice translator, here are the pros and cons of the app
| Pros | Cons |
| Free | No offline mode |
| Easy to use | Delay translation with unstable internet connection |
| 90% accuracy for simple phrases and long sentences | A little bit buggy and crashes intermittently |
Basically Microsoft voice translation and Google Translation have the same technique to operate their voice translation feature. If you are familiar with Google Translate then Microsoft Translator won’t be a problem for you.
Microsoft Translation is indeed a reliable translation app to use. Online mode voice translation for a very simple phrase has 90% accuracy. Especially if you can do a very good accent and pronunciation. This app successfully translates long sentences into understandable translations. You can split the screen with another person so you can have a two-person conversation.
This app has a more reliable voice translation compared to the other competition. Especially for travelers who only use simple phrases and sentences. Unfortunately, you can only use the app when you have a fast Internet connection. The app is still a little bit buggy and crashes intermittently. But overall Microsoft translation offered better voice translation than Google Translate.
The translator supports the following languages
Afrikaans, Arabic, Arabic (Levantine), Bangla, Bosnian (Latin), Bulgarian, Cantonese (Traditional), Catalan, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dari, Dutch, English, Estonian, Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong Daw, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Korean, Kurdish (Central), Kurdish (Northern), Latvian, Lithuanian, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Maori, Marathi, Norwegian, Odia, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Punjabi, Queretaro Otomi, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Serbian (Cyrillic), Serbian (Latin), Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tahitian, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tongan, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yucatec Maya.
SayHi
SayHi, built by Amazon and released in 2017 is the third recommended free app you should download. It is ad-free and has no ‘premium’ features. SayHi uses a very simple and modern interface. Offers over 50 translation languages and also dialects.
Like the two translation apps above, SayHi also has a typing feature translation. You can simply type or copy-paste sentences you want to translate. Plus Instant Camera translation.
Lastly, it can translate person to person chat. You can even use it for joining group conversations (in available language). You can choose a male or female voice translator voice, also speed up or slow down the speech. It’s a perfect app for you who want to learn a new language or travel to a foreign country.
How To Use It
- Download SayHi on your Play Store (Android) or Appstore (Apple)
- Chose the language you want to translate
E.g. From English to Bahasa Indonesia or From Bahasa Indonesia to English
- Tap the Speaker button then start to speak
Translate Voice in Phrases
*Note: To test how accurate the app was, I translated common English sentences into Spanish. I used both simple phrases and one longer sentence.
Simple phrases
- Welcome to Bali
- How are you?
- Where do you come from?
- What is your name?
- How long will you stay in Bali?
- Where do you stay?
- How much is this?
- Can I get a discount?
- I want to order some food, please.
- Where is the bathroom?
Long sentence
- Hello Mr. Smith. Welcome to Bali. How are you today? Is this your first time in Bali?
Pros & Cons
After using SayHi a few times for voice translation, here are the pros and cons I found on the app.
| Pros | Cons |
| Free | No offline mode |
| No ads and premium features | Need to wait for the app to translate |
| 80% accuracy for both simple phrases and long sentences | Limited conversation languages |
After doing the test for this app with short phrases and longer sentences the result was quite surprising. It can translate the language with 80% good accuracy and 20% with poor translation that is hard to understand. This app can also translate very long sentences for you. Again, the voice translation only works with a good internet connection and does not support offline translation.
Though this app has a very limited number of supported languages, if you are looking to translate longer sentences, then SayHi is the app for you.
The translator supports the following languages
Afrikaans, Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Chinese (Cantonese – Traditional), Chinese (Mandarin), Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Fijan, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong Daw, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malagasy, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Samoan, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Tongon, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh
Instant Voice Translation
The Fourth voice translation recommendation is Instant Voice Translation. It uses AI as the voice to voice translator and is designed to translate language in face to face conversation.
Like other three apps before Instant Voice Translation, it is built with a very simple and easy to use interface. Supports translation of over 70 languages.
How To Use It
- Download Instant Voice Translation on your Play Store (Android) or Appstore (Apple)
- Chose the language you want to translate
E.g. From English to Spanish or Spanish to English
- Tap the Speaker button then start to speak
Translate Voice in Phrases
*Note: To test how accurate the app was, I translated common English sentences into Spanish. I used both simple phrases and one longer sentence.
Simple phrases
- Welcome to the Dominican Republic
- How are you?
- Where do you come from?
- What is your name?
- How long will you stay in the Dominican Republic?
- Where do you stay?
- How much is this?
- Can I get a discount?
- I want to order some food, please.
- Where is the bathroom?
Long sentence
- Hello Mr. Smith. Welcome to the Dominican Republic. How are you today? Is this your first time in the Dominican Republic?
| Pros | Cons |
| Free | No offline mode |
| Slow and faster mode translation | The app will stop translating if you stop talking |
| 70% accuracy for both simple phrases and long sentences | Limited language translation |
Testing on Instant Voice Translate resulted in 70% good accuracy and 30% with poor translation that was hard to understand. However, it does stop recording in the middle of sentences for e.g. when you take a breath. You can hear the translation in slow and faster mode by clicking the snail icon.
The translator supports the following languages
Afrikaans, Arabic, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Chinese (Cantonese – Traditional), Chinese (Mandarin), Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Fijan, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong Daw, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malagasy, Malay, Maltese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Samoan, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tahitian, Thai, Tongon, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yucatec Maya
Conclusion
All four recommended translation apps will help you in your travel adventures. They can all be downloaded for free to your smartphone on Android or IOS.
All the apps are relatively accurate. However, from the best to worst, we would rank the translation apps as follows:
- Microsoft Translator
- Google Translate
- SayHi
- Instant Voice Translator.
Even though they are a handy tool to use, we recommend you learn a few simple phrases of whatever country you are travelling to. Not only will it show the locals respect for their culture, you will also find people treat you better as you have taken the time to try to learn about their language and way of life.
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