Google Plans To Redesign The Interface Of Its Translation App

The translation app developed and designed by Google can be described as one of the most useful applications you can find in the store. Those whose professional activities involve processing various documents in different languages especially have various interesting things to say. This phenomenal app allows you seamlessly translate text, bilingual conversations, and webpages, in as many as 109 languages. Its mobile version supports the use of a keyboard, microphone, and camera to enter content, and it looks like the company will soon completely revise the program interface for the first time in several years.

Although Google Translate gets new features from time to time. Features in the past include transcribing speech to text in real-time, however, the developers have not updated its interface in a very long time. It turns out that in the near future a new design option may also arise; probably – primarily for new smartphones by Google only. According to XDA Developers, it is most likely that the new version will only be available only for the yet-to-be-released Pixel 6 on Android 12 smartphones particularly. Exclusive features and interfaces are common to the company’s branded devices.

Enthusiasts of the XDA Developers portal traditionally took apart the new APK-assembly of the software, Google Translate 6.21, which was released last weekend. It turned out that it contains a completely updated version of the interface; but on activation, it almost does not function (for example, most of the important buttons do not work). But you can roughly predict how the final product will eventually look in the future.

Judging from the screenshots making rounds, the new user interface puts a clear emphasis on one-handed usability. The buttons for launching the camera, microphone, and switching from language to language, all ​​have been moved to the bottom of the screen. The “hamburger” menu also has disappeared – now it contains subsections like “Phrasebook”, “Saved Phrases”, “Offline Translation” and “Settings”. Apparently, these functions can be launched using the “More” button located in the lower-left area.

Interestingly, the Manifest entry for this new Activity suggests this redesign is tied extensively to the Pixel 6 series. The Pixel 6 series is Google’s lineup of upcoming smartphones rumored to later launch in October. The label for the Activity refers to a string named “app_name_p21”, where “p21” likely refers to the 2021 Pixel phones. The actual value for the “app_name_p21” string is “P21 Translate”, so again it seems this new design may launch on the Pixel 6 running Android 12. The Manifest entry also suggests this design is the “Material You” redesign for the Translate app, with the style labeled as “Translate_MaterialNext” — Material Next is the internal code-name for Material You.

Conclusively, it wouldn’t be surprising if the new UI being exclusive to Pixel phones. As we have already seen, Google whose play store policy recently plans to permanently close inactive developers’ accounts has done that on multiple occasions. In any case, the new UI hasn’t rolled out officially to any existing Pixel phone yet. However, Techbooky would continue to dig into finding anything worth sharing on it.