Microsoft brings Translator smarts to SwiftKey for Android

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
published

SwiftKey's toolbar is getting some translation juice with its latest update.

Updated September 27, 2018: Following a few weeks of testing with beta users, Microsoft Translator support is now rolling out to all SwiftKey users. The original story follows.

If SwiftKey is your keyboard of choice on Android, you'll soon be able to tap the toolbar for quick access to translations. The latest update to the SwiftKey Beta (opens in new tab) brings integration with Microsoft's Translator service, putting the ability to translate between a number of languages a tap away (via Neowin).

The translation tool lives in SwiftKey's toolbar, and it allows you to choose both the source and target languages once tapped. From there, you can type your message in the source language, and SwiftKey will translate it in real time to your target language.

In addition to Microsoft Translator integration, the beta app includes a few other notable changes. Here's a look at the official release notes:

  • Access Microsoft Translator from the toolbar
  • Type in one new language: Dungan
  • Added Tamil99 native top row symbols layouts
  • Added Indic native top row symbols layouts

If you're okay with dealing with the occasional bug, you can grab the latest version of the SwiftKey Beta at Google Play now to start playing around with Translator. Should testing go well, the feature will likely hit the stable version of SwiftKey before too long.

See at Google Play (opens in new tab)

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

11 Comments
  • Oh, translation... Tai bus naudinga pasikalbėti su savo draugu iš Lietuvos.
  • That's easy for you to say!
  • Can we have this on Windows too? :-)
  • Hmm..I'll think about it
  • Yah l think so, coz on the next version of Windows, the on screen keyboard will be powered by SwiftKey
  • For Windows Core maybe, for the version everybody is using well...
  • This is cool and all, but I really would like to know how MS is integrating my SwiftKey experience on Android into Windows. It's not really clear to me what's going on in that respect. For example, my custom dictionary entries in Android don't (always?) appear in the suggestions when typing in Windows.
  • Are they supposed to be intertwined? Because I never noticed that.
  • Well, that's my point, I have no idea what's going on. You'd think that kind of synergy would be part of the plan, keyboards being keyboards no matter what OS you're on. It seems like synergy from mobile to desktop is part of the MS plan these days but you can't always tell.
  • This is what made Wordflow so great. One "dictionary" over all devices made Wordflow learning my typing style better than any other keyboard. I do like swiftkey, but i still miss this.
  • Finally something that is actually useful was added. My translator app will probably be deleted depending on how it works on SwiftKey