Now you’re speaking my language!
Google Maps is a fantastic tool to have when traveling in a foreign country, and now it’s even better as Google is automatically translating place reviews to the language you have set on your device. While you could of course always copy a review written in the local language and bring it over to a translation app, it’s simpler when Google does the work for you.
Now when viewing a Google Maps place review in another language, you’ll see the translated copy first prepended by “(Translated by Google)” — you’ll also see the original text below, which could help you manage any minor translation errors. The results are the same if you happen to find a place that’s in the Maps database via Google Search.
The translation won’t work for every language pair out there, but if you’ve ever use Google Translate, you have a good idea of which languages it can handle — and, well, it’s a lot of languages. While there’s a good chance you can find Google Maps reviews in both English and the local language when you’re traveling to popular destinations, this is a huge improvement for people who are visiting from a third area that has a completely different language.
Google Maps continues to be one of the great go-to travel apps no matter where you’re headed, and it’s the small improvements like this that add up to make it indispensable for travelers.
