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Comment by unreal37 | Hacker News Reader

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unreal37·

It seems Word Lens was destined to join Google Translate and is a perfect match for Glass.

At least they're not killing the app. Yet.

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I imagine the app will come down within a month or two of the transition, but it poses an interesting question:

The Google Translate app is a native front-end to the Google Translate service. Word Lens actually does its translation on the device itself, with no need for cellular service in whatever country you may be exploring. Will Google add an offline photo translation mode, or will the Word Lens tech move to the cloud?

Not relying on the cloud is really important when you are traveling. Roaming is killer expensive and figuring out how to get a native phone plan in a new country without being able to read the signs is hard.

Google Translate has had offline support for a while.

http://googletranslate.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-worlds-langu...

I'm only surprised it took them this long.

My thoughts exactly. Also, I wonder what ever happened to Google Goggles, which as I recall was very similar technology.

Google Goggles, the Android app, is still in the Google Play Store. The latest update came out in November 2013. Link:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...

P.S. Looking at the above URL, it seems Google Goggles may have been called "Unveil" at some point.

It has also been integrated into the iOS Google app

They integrated it into the Translate app.

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