Google Lens can translate foreign language text in photos and read it back to you

Google is making some updates to its impressive visual translation tech from Google Translate and throwing it into Lens. You can snap a photo of a sign in a foreign language and it will translate it to your chosen language.

A version of this work was already visible inside the Google Translate app, but the latest demo brings some new functionality. You can tap a “listen” button and Lens will read the text out to you in the translated language and highlight which word it’s reading so you can follow along.

The Lens team has been working with early testers in India and is working to make the technology lightweight enough that it can run on less-robust phones. Google said the tech stack is just 100 kilobytes. It’s currently not available.

No vague allusions on when this stuff is going to be released, but hey, that’s Google I/O.