Top 8 Google Translate Alternatives iPhone

For anyone who has been a stranger in a strange land at some point, translation apps sure can come in handy! I’ve always been a firm believer that you should at least learn enough to get by in terms of phrases and stuff before visiting a country on vacation or business, but there are times you can be in a tight spot and just need an accurate translation right away. I’d always recommend picking up a guide book and learning the basic phrases that you will need, but it’s also an excellent idea to invest in a useful translation app before travelling, too. Now, Google Translate is probably the kind of translation apps for the iPhone, and has steadily been improved over the last few years to offer much more than ever before. But there are some nice alternatives out there that do enough to compete, even with a giant developer of Google’s ilk. There are also those translation apps for the iPhone that offer something slightly different, whether it be different languages or a different approach or even different functionality, such as the ability to scan documents and machine translate them. We recently took a bunch of these translation apps for a spin and this is the result!

8. SayHi Translate ($4.99)

SayHi Translate is an app I bought for $2.99 a few years ago, so the price has gone up since then but the app has been developed and inmproved. The speech recognition within this app is great and there are over 40 languages supported which is almost double what some apps these days will offer. The app also combines both language and dialect to ensure that the result being put forward is as accurate as possible. There’s a reason that this third party translation app has received quite a following since it was first unleashed on the App Store, so is well worth checking out if you can afford the few dollars it costs to download. – Download from iTunes

7. iHandy Translator Pro ($1.99)

Another translation app worth checking out is iHandy Translator PPro, which allows you translate any sentence or phrase. The text to speech stuff doesn’t actually come as standard here however despite the price, which is annoying. There are some nice social integration features however, with the app being linked to your account on Twitter or Facebook so that you can share your progress learning a new language! – Download from iTunes

6. Vocre ($4.99)

Vocre is also worth checking out and is one of the more comprehensive speech to text translators on the market at present. It’s perfect for those annoying situations when you find yourself in front of someone who doesn’t speak English, or find yourself in a country in which you don’t know the language. With a few swipes of the app, conversing becomes possible and you can make sure that your point is delivered in the most accurate way possible. – Download from iTunes

5. Pixter ($2.99)

I do like to throw a curveball into these lists every so often, and I think that Pixter definitely qualifies as that. It isn’t a dedicated translation app in the same way as Google Translate per se, but does offer something slightly different that many users will no doubt be interested in. Instead of translating voice or text input, the app instead translate printed text using an OCR scanner. You simply take the photo of a book or a sign or whatever it is you want translated, and the app will then recognize it and perform the translation. You will find the odd OCR error where the app hasn’t recognized figures or characters properly from the image, which obviously effects the accuracy of the final translation, but it’s still an excellent tool to have, especially when travelling. The app supports over 32 different languages, so the chances are you will find what you are looking for! – Download from iTunes

4. iTranslate Voice ($4.99)

This may be something of a spoiler alert, but we’ll mention the base iTranslate app below, which is actually free to download though benefits from specific add ons that will no doubt enhance the app. Then there is iTranslate Voice, which is from the same developers by is obviously concerned just with immediate voice translation of words and phrases, which is obviously very useful when it comes to translating certain things on the fly. This one is perhaps the most effective app out there besides Google Translate when it comes to breaking down that pesky language barrier, for with it you also get the option to use the excellent AirTranslate feature. This basically applies when two people have iTranslate Voice installed, and allows you to both speak your native language and let iTranslate take care of the rest. The app does come at a price however, and costs $4.99 with additional fees for add ons. – Download from iTunes

3. iVoice Translator Pro ($0.99)

iVoice Translator Pro is another of those that is concerned almost solely with voice and speech recognition and translation, which is obviously perfect for those who are traveling or perhaps entertaining someone in the US who doesn’t speak tha language. The app currently supports over 30 different languages and I should note is a two sided translation app. This means that once you have selected your native and target language, the app will recognize your words and translate accordingly. The person you are speaking to can then answer into the app in their own language and the app will give you an answer in your native tongue. This will make conversations a whole lot more interactive and natural, and it’s an excellent way to break down the language barrier and ease the tension that comes with it. – Download from iTunes

2. Translate Professional (Free)

This is perhaps the best free alternative besides Google Translate and the excellent iTranslate (more on that one below) and has over 50 supported languages. While the base app is free, there are a bunch of different add ons that can be purhcased within the app, such as voice recognition which doesn’t actually come as standard. – Download from iTunes

1. iTranslate (Free)

I’d say that in terms of features, iTranslate stands head and shoulders above the rest. While the basic app listed here is entirely free, there are some excellent features that can be bolted on for a small price. Most of these revolve around voice recognition and text to speech options, and there is also the standalone iTranslate Voice app that you can download if this is what you prefer. I think that one of the features that really sets iTranslate apart at least for me is the idea of dialects, and the fact that you can enter a phrase and have the app repeat it to you in any dialect. For anyone who has spent enough time around a foreign language to appreciate the striking difference between certain dialects, this can be a massively helpful feature. It’s the attention to detail here that makes the difference: even with the voice playback, you can pick between male and female voices and even slow down or speed up the playback depending on what you prefer and what seems more clear. – Download from iTunes