Translate images

You can use your phone’s camera to translate text  in the Translate app. For example, you can use your camera to translate signs or handwritten notes.

Translate text in photos

You can translate text from new photos and photos you’ve already taken in the Translate app.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Translate app .
2. Pick the languages.
   • At the top left, choose the language you want to translate or Detect language.
   • At the top right, choose a language you read.
3. Beneath the text box, tap Camera .
   • To translate the whole text instantly, tap Instant .
   • To translate part of the document:
     1. Tap Scan Capture .
     2. Use your finger to highlight the text you want to translate, or tap Select all.
   • To choose an existing photo to translate, at the bottom right, tap Import .
4. Use your finger to highlight the text you want to translate, or tap Select all.

Turn "Improve camera input" on or off

The photos you scan and import  in the Translate app get sent to Google for text recognition. To let Google keep the images for future product improvement, turn on Improve camera input.

To turn "Improve camera input" on or off: 

1. Open the Translate app .
2. Tap Menu   Settings   Data usage.
3. Turn Improve camera input on or off.

Translate what you find through your camera

For some languages, you can point your phone’s camera at text to translate it. Translations of small, badly lit, or stylized text may not be accurate.

1. On your Android phone or tablet, open the Translate app .
2. If needed, select your source and target languages.
   • At the top left: Select the source language you want to translate or tap Detect language.
   • At the top right: Select the target language you want to translate to.
3. Tap Camera   Instant .
4. Point your camera at the text you want to translate.

Important: If you're unable to scan the image, tap Capture .

If your translation is unclear, save the picture and select it from your gallery or camera roll.

Supported languages

You can translate these source languages into any of the languages supported by Google Translate:

Afrikaans  Albanian  Arabic  Azerbaijani  Basque  Belarusian  Bengali  Bosnian  Bulgarian  Catalan  Cebuano  Chichewa  Chinese Corsican  Croatian  Czech  Danish  Dutch  English  Esperanto  Estonian  Filipino  Finnish  French  Frisian  Galician  German  Greek  Haitian Creole  Hausa

Hawaiian  Hindi  Hmong  Hungarian  Icelandic  Igbo  Indonesian  Irish  Italian  Japanese  Javanese  Kazakh  Korean  Kurdish  Kyrgyz  Latin  Latvian  Lithuanian  Luxembourgish  Macedonian  Malagasy  Malay  Maltese  Maori  Marathi  Mongolian  Nepali  Norwegian  Pashto Persian

Polish  Portuguese  Romanian  Russian  Samoan  Scots Gaelic  Serbian  Sesotho  Shona  Sindhi  Slovak  Slovenian  Somali  Spanish  Sundanese  Swahili  Swedish  Tajik  Thai  Turkish  Ukrainian  Urdu  Uzbek  Vietnamese  Welsh  Xhosa  Yoruba  Zulu