Google Translate adds five new languages

This week, Google added another five languages to the Google Translate service and with it enabled access to web content for millions more users.

It's been four years since Google added new languages to Translate. The five new ones include Kinyarwanda, Odia (Oriya), Tatar, Turkmen, and Uyghur. Most people will probably be learning these languages exist today, but they are spoken by more than 75 million people around the world. By adding them, Google has increased the number of languages supported by Translate to 108.

Support across the Translate services varies for the five new languages. All of them are supported for text and website translation, but virtual keyboard input only extends to Kinyarwanda, Tatar, and Uyghur for now.

One of the difficulties Google faces is adding lesser-known and used languages is having access to web content to train with. The Google Translate team is using advancements in machine learning technology to help overcome this hurdle, but also relies on the Google Translate Community for help. So even though these new languages are supported, Google is very keen for anyone who speaks them to join the community and help continue to improve its translations.

Last year, Google updated the Translate app's instant camera translation feature to add another 60 languages. Then last month Google demonstrated a new feature heading to the Translate app that will allow conversations to be transcribed in real-time while simultaneously being translated into another language.