Google Translate now works in apps on any Android phone

If you hate having to paste foreign language text into Google Translate just to understand it, your worries are over. Google has updated Translate for Android to introduce Tap to Translate, an expansion of the translation-anywhere feature it introduced on Marshmallow last fall. Anyone running Android 4.2 or later can now decipher unfamiliar text on the spot simply by copying it -- helpful if you frequently run into messages or social posts that aren't in familiar tongues.

There's more rolling out over the next few days, including things for the non-Android crowd. Translate for iOS now includes offline support, giving you a way to communicate in other languages when you don't have data service (say, on vacation). And if you regularly visit China, you'll be glad to know that camera-based Word Lens translation on both Android and iOS now supports simplified and traditional Chinese. If you've ever struggled to make sense of a Beijing restaurant menu or a Shanghai street sign, you can rest easy.