Google Now on Tap is one of the best features of Android Marshmallow, and it's now getting even smarter.
The latest update to the service adds translation to its growing list of features, making it easier to understand things written in another language. Users can now translate any foreign text or screen, be it in apps or web pages, directly into their native tongue with no hassle. Pages can even contain multiple languages. Google Now on Tap will translate them all.
The smart assistant can seemingly translate from all languages supported by Google Translate, but it's worth pointing out that it's supported only on Android Marshmallow devices with the default language set to English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Russian or Portuguese.
Perhaps the greatest upside to this new translation feature is that it allows users to easily translate text from any app and translate entire pages, not just a few sections selected by moving the cursor around a chunk of text. While Chrome has long sported built-in translation, the same could not be said of other native apps.
The updated Google Now on Tap now makes the option available for virtually any app on your handset, and it's very easy to use. All you need to do is press and hold the home button to activate the assistant, then select the "translate this screen" option. The text will be instantly translated to your phone's default language.
"So if you're using Google Maps and come across a location or a restaurant review in a foreign language, just long press the home button and continue reading," Google explains. "You'll even be able to translate multiple languages at once."
In addition to this near-instant translation, Google Now on Tap also gets other neat treats. A discover section called "discovery mode," for instance, will now make things more interesting by bringing up a "stream of visual content related to what's on your screen."
The update also adds support for scanning QR codes and barcodes with the phone's camera so it can serve additional information. Scanning an item in a store, for instance, will prompt Google to offer more details and reviews for it. Again, for this to work, you need to press and hold the home button to activate Google Now on Tap after scanning the code.
This is not exactly new functionality on a phone, but it does make things easier. This feature will work with packaged goods, DVDs, books and others such. The update follows the one from early June, which brought image search, support for text select and more.
