Not good for Cantonese
Update: This used to be almost the only option for translating English/Cantonese. Finally (Oct 24) Google Translate can now do written and spoken Cantonese, and provides a Jyutping translation too! Translations are far more accurate than Microsoft Translate, which is now confined to the bin.
Firstly the play buttons don’t work while autotranslating conversations. If they are not available, they should be greyed out. More importantly I have tried to use the Cantonese translation as I am currently learning, but it’s completely useless. It can understand and translate a few spoken phrases into English (my my wife is a native speaker), but simply cannot translate English into Cantonese. Also don’t the spoken playback is too fast and poor audio quality.
Firstly the play buttons don’t work while autotranslating conversations. If they are not available, they should be greyed out. More importantly I have tried to use the Cantonese translation as I am currently learning, but it’s completely useless. It can understand and translate a few spoken phrases into English (my my wife is a native speaker), but simply cannot translate English into Cantonese. Also don’t the spoken playback is too fast and poor audio quality.
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Excellent App
Thank you Microsoft for this helpful app, thank you Bill Gates
Getting better 👍
Getting better, and my primary translation app.
Now that it has local (downloaded) languages available it’s much better than previously.
I’ve used it for both Chinese and Thai, and asked native speakers if this app’s translations are better than the Google translation app.
In both instances they said that this app does a better translation.
Well done Microsoft. 👍
Personally I think it would be better to have the target language above the source language.
I think the previous version the translation order was target above the source.
Suggestions for improvement:
• Change the order of copied translations back so that the target language is on top.
• Change the speed of the text-to-speech.
• Highlight the translated words or characters as the text-to-speech plays. For an excellent example of both of these, have a look at the Pleco Chinese app.
• Respond to reviews.
Now that it has local (downloaded) languages available it’s much better than previously.
I’ve used it for both Chinese and Thai, and asked native speakers if this app’s translations are better than the Google translation app.
In both instances they said that this app does a better translation.
Well done Microsoft. 👍
Personally I think it would be better to have the target language above the source language.
I think the previous version the translation order was target above the source.
Suggestions for improvement:
• Change the order of copied translations back so that the target language is on top.
• Change the speed of the text-to-speech.
• Highlight the translated words or characters as the text-to-speech plays. For an excellent example of both of these, have a look at the Pleco Chinese app.
• Respond to reviews.
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Cuts off the sentence
When I press to hear the translation it gives me a correct version initially when I want to hear it again it chops off the first few words and only gives you the last few words and it sounds so rude. For example if you ask for a translation “can I please have a drink of water ?”English to Italian, it says “have a drink of water”. How can you fix this?
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Microphone inoperative
For the last several days the microphone function of the app was not working. Other translators worked fine as far as the microphone function is concerned. I have been pulling out my hair trying to figure out the problem. Finally, I removed FaceTime from my phone and magically the microphone function has returned. I just installed FaceTime a few days ago. Weird things happen sometimes since I live in China. Please look into the interaction of Microsoft Translate and FaceTime. By the way, the exact same situation occurred on my wife’s Chinese iPhone 14. Removed FaceTime and her translator also functions again. I’ll look out for your reply. I’ll also bump you up to five stars if you reply!
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Look no further
It’s the best one out of all the ones offering the same thing. I tested all of them on free trial prior to attending a lecture in Madrid (in Spanish) — I had to consume information live, fast, and clearly. This app was the only one that was reliable. It recognizes paragraph breaks in speech to feed you one point conveyed at a time in an ingestible feed. I showed the lecturer and the staff: they were all impressed and said “that’s all correct”. It also saves history. I’m sticking with this one. Forget the others asking for money just to offer very little — especially jn comparison to this app.
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Update! Delete History!
Update Jan 2024: The ability to delete your translation history is finally added! Split screen is back, sizable, and rotatable! Good user interface improvements and better options in settings! Nice update, guys!
Two bugs I found: #1: I can’t get auto-speak translations to work. #2: In split-screen mode, both user microphones are on my side of the screen. One should be on the other person’s side. hopefully these will be fixed soon.
March 2023: I really like the new ability to tap the microphone and have it continuously translate, without it shutting off the microphone every time the speaker pauses. That said, the split screen option should also still be available, as it is not practical to explain to someone speaking a different language that they should download the app and initiate conversation mode on their own phone. It’s a good feature, but should be optional, not mandatory! Also, please add back in the ability to delete all history at once. I do not wish to individually delete hundreds of translated messages. [UPDATE: Devs say this will be added back in] Also, there should be a way to do one-way translations. Sometimes the app incorrectly hears Japanese language as English, and tries to translate it into Japanese!
Two bugs I found: #1: I can’t get auto-speak translations to work. #2: In split-screen mode, both user microphones are on my side of the screen. One should be on the other person’s side. hopefully these will be fixed soon.
March 2023: I really like the new ability to tap the microphone and have it continuously translate, without it shutting off the microphone every time the speaker pauses. That said, the split screen option should also still be available, as it is not practical to explain to someone speaking a different language that they should download the app and initiate conversation mode on their own phone. It’s a good feature, but should be optional, not mandatory! Also, please add back in the ability to delete all history at once. I do not wish to individually delete hundreds of translated messages. [UPDATE: Devs say this will be added back in] Also, there should be a way to do one-way translations. Sometimes the app incorrectly hears Japanese language as English, and tries to translate it into Japanese!
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Trash New update and UX is harder to use than previous version
I thoroughly dislike this new update they made 9 months ago. The app is actually harder to use and less seamless than it was before. The app no longer translates as you type and If you accidentally mistype a word or sentence, you have to rewrite the entire thing over again! Switching between languages is actually more difficult and it no longer gives you similar words/ multiple translations for the same word. Some default translations provided aren’t what is used in conversations, so the feature that showed multiple ways of saying a word was actually really useful. You also can’t change the reading speed for translated text anymore. These were not issues in the previous version. How can you call it a new and improved version when it’s more trash than the last?? I used to love this app but it’s gone completely downhill. They just removed all the features that made it awesome to use. I’m extremely disappointed and am deleting it. Would not recommend this app anymore.
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Translator can not contact internet
Dear Microsoft Translator Support Team,
I hope you are doing well. My name is SARMAD, and I am writing to inform you about an issue I have been having with the Microsoft Translator application ( version 23.3.2) on my iPhone SE 2022 (iOS version 17.1.1).
I am currently using the latest iOS version and have ensured I have installed the most up-to-date version of the Microsoft Translator app on my iPhone. However, when attempting to use the application to translate speech, I encountered an error message stating, "Cannot translate speech. Please check your network connection and try again." Even though my internet connection is working fine.
I have confirmed that my network connection is stable, and this issue persists despite having the latest software updates. Interestingly, I do not encounter the same problem when using the Microsoft Translator app on my iPad.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could investigate and address this issue at your earliest convenience. The functionality of the Microsoft Translator app is crucial to my language translation needs, and resolving this problem would greatly enhance my user experience.
Please do not hesitate to ask if you need any more information or details about my device and setup. I'm looking forward to your help in resolving this situation.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Best regards,
SARMAD
I hope you are doing well. My name is SARMAD, and I am writing to inform you about an issue I have been having with the Microsoft Translator application ( version 23.3.2) on my iPhone SE 2022 (iOS version 17.1.1).
I am currently using the latest iOS version and have ensured I have installed the most up-to-date version of the Microsoft Translator app on my iPhone. However, when attempting to use the application to translate speech, I encountered an error message stating, "Cannot translate speech. Please check your network connection and try again." Even though my internet connection is working fine.
I have confirmed that my network connection is stable, and this issue persists despite having the latest software updates. Interestingly, I do not encounter the same problem when using the Microsoft Translator app on my iPad.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could investigate and address this issue at your earliest convenience. The functionality of the Microsoft Translator app is crucial to my language translation needs, and resolving this problem would greatly enhance my user experience.
Please do not hesitate to ask if you need any more information or details about my device and setup. I'm looking forward to your help in resolving this situation.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Best regards,
SARMAD
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The service is good but this app needs work
Edit: this app has got better and worse. The problems with dark mode have been fixed.
However, the big issue now is that this service has become very unreliable. The conversation is regularly ended prematurely by the server. To be clear, the app is not crashing, my browser (on which I also join) is not crashing. The meeting is being ended at the server side. It has got much worse over the last 6 months. In today's 2 hour meeting it ended the meeting 4 times. Each time I had to start a new session.
I use Microsoft Translator on my desktop regularly and it’s great. However, this app has a few flaws. Firstly, with my iPad in dark mode it is extremely hard to see the text I type. Next, the app has not been written to function side-by-side with another app on an iPad. That feature was introduced years ago. Finally, and most significantly, if you temporarily toggle into another app this app closes the conversation and you lose everything. I’m on an M1-powered iPad Pro. This is a supercomputer. This app shouldn’t have any memory problems on such a device, it should be able to stay open and in the conversation in the background while I toggle to another app.
However, the big issue now is that this service has become very unreliable. The conversation is regularly ended prematurely by the server. To be clear, the app is not crashing, my browser (on which I also join) is not crashing. The meeting is being ended at the server side. It has got much worse over the last 6 months. In today's 2 hour meeting it ended the meeting 4 times. Each time I had to start a new session.
I use Microsoft Translator on my desktop regularly and it’s great. However, this app has a few flaws. Firstly, with my iPad in dark mode it is extremely hard to see the text I type. Next, the app has not been written to function side-by-side with another app on an iPad. That feature was introduced years ago. Finally, and most significantly, if you temporarily toggle into another app this app closes the conversation and you lose everything. I’m on an M1-powered iPad Pro. This is a supercomputer. This app shouldn’t have any memory problems on such a device, it should be able to stay open and in the conversation in the background while I toggle to another app.
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