With the Samsung Galaxy S24 series launched for close to a month, you’d probably heard Galaxy AI all over the place. But how does it really work compared to all those other AI out there? Well after using it for a while I have to say I’m pretty impressed, especially with the AI-powered translation function. So today we will look further on how Galaxy AI helps to break the language barrier in 3 major translation features.
1. Live Translate
We probably assume everyone speaks English, like come on who doesn't speak the international language right? But if you happen to travel to places other than the major cities or touristy spots, like in Thailand, Japan and Korea etc, most people actually speak in their own mother tongue.Â
Let’s say if you arrive at Hua Hin and you are looking for your grab driver, and the only Thai you know is Sawadee Kap and Kap Khun Kap, that’s when the Galaxy AI comes to the rescue.Â
With Galaxy AI’s Live Translate, you can just speak normally in your own preferred language, and the AI will translate your words in real time to the other end. And once the opposite responds, the AI will translate it back to your preferred language.Â
Also the Live Translate allows you to choose whether to mute both your voices so only the translation will be heard throughout the call so it’s up to you whether to enable it or not. I personally prefer to have it off so I can hear the tone to get a sense of real conversation going on, but of course if both of you are having some interlingual argument then I’d strongly suggest you enable it to reduce some hard feelings.
Also to add on, you can set up the language and voice presets for each contacts beforehand so you wouldn't need to always change your settings before every call.
2. Interpreter
Off the call, you can also use Galaxy AI as your interpreter. Most of the time you could probably just google your way out but if your internet happens to not be working well for any sort of reason and you need some help from the locals urgently, you can use the Interpreter feature to get instant translation without the need to hop on a call..
In this case, like the Live Translate, you can just speak in English, and the AI will translate it into Thai, and when the Thai speaker responds, it will be translated into English. And it also includes a very Quality of Life view mode to make both sides communicate easier without the need to keep flipping the phone.
What surprised me is that the Interpreter can even identify and interpret different accents of English, and I tried speaking quite a heavy British accent and Indian accent like how all those funny videos we saw on social media, and yes, it can interpret perfectly well, so I think we wouldn't have problem understanding British or Indian accent anymore right?
3. Chat Assist
Last but not least, Galaxy AI also can translate if you're texting someone who mains a different language. For example, we might have friends that can speak Chinese but don't know how to read Chinese. With Chat Assist, things just get so much easier as it can just translate as per your preferences.
Let's say I mainly speak and write Chinese, and my friend mainly speaks and writes English. With Chat Assist, I can write in Chinese and the system will generate an equivalent English version to be sent.
And my friend can just text me in English and at my side AI will translate it into Chinese for me, and all past chat history will still show both the original and translation so you wouldn't need to worry when looking back. Nevertheless when it comes to some local slangs there are still some limitations but still it's more than sufficient for daily conversation.
Thoughts
Currently Samsung has a total of 17 language packs for its Galaxy AI translation features, which covers a total of 13 different languages with 3 region variants for English and Spanish.Â
Galaxy AI frees you from needing a third-party app as you can just download the language packs and the translation will happen live right on the device, and you don't even need an internet connection for it to work once you downloaded it. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra would just make a perfect travel companion, be it for work or for leisure. We could expect to see more languages being added in the future and who knows one day we might see Manglish or Singlish being supported as well.
