Google brings camera translation for feature phone users in India

Google Assistant's camera translation feature is now available on devices running KaiOS.

Google recently held its first virtual ‘Google for India’ event. (REUTERS)

Google Assistant on KaiOS now supports camera-based translations for feature phone users in India. This is available in English and Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telugu and Tamil.

The Google Assistant integration in Google Lens was first launched in I/O 2019. With the Google Lens app, users can point the camera at text and have it translated to over 100 languages. Google Lens can also speak the words out loud in any of the languages available. This feature was later rolled out to Google Go for Android Go devices.

This feature is now available for devices running KaiOS. To use this feature, users need to open Google Assistant on any of these KaiOS devices. Then select ‘Camera Translate and tap on the camera icon and point it to any text for translation. Users can also press the right soft key once within Assistant. This works best with visuals like product label, street sign, or document.

Google Assistant camera translation on KaiOS. (Google)

Google Assistant camera translation on KaiOS. (Google)

Google Assistant will then list out the translated text in different languages. Users can swipe through and check the text translated. For Assistant to read out the text, just tap on the voice icon below. This feature currently supports six languages including English. Google plans to add support for more languages like Kannada and Gujarati.

In India, KaiOS runs on the JioPhone 2, JioPhone and the Nokia 8110 4G. Google has previously added features like voice typing on KaiOS, voice-based language selection and support for Indian languages.