Report: Amazon Beefing Up Alexa's Translation Capabilities

Watch out, Google Translate and Microsoft Translator. Discussion has it that Amazon is beefing upward Alexa's translation capabilities.

Yahoo Finance, citing several unnamed sources "familiar with the affair," on Thursday reported that Amazon's Alexa team is working to make the voice-based digital assistant "a context-savvy, real-time universal language translator." Alexa can already natively translate words and "bones phrases" from English to Spanish, German language, French, and Italian, the report notes, but this new effort aims to take things a step further.

"For instance, if a person from the US, who only speaks English language, attends a wedding in Tokyo and doesn't speak Japanese, Alexa would be able to aid that person hold a conversation in Japanese," the report notes. "Alexa would have an understanding of the Japanese civilisation…and would incorporate its noesis into translations."

Amazon ultimately wants people to be able to access this Alexa characteristic via "any device on-the fly," according to Yahoo Finance. In the future, Alexa may likewise exist able to "translate conversations with multiple people speaking in different languages at one setting," the report notes.

As for whether that volition actually come to laissez passer remains to be seen. Amazon did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment nigh the report.

Google last year hyped up the "existent-fourth dimension translation" capabilities of its $159 Pixel Buds, but that characteristic turned out to exist a major letdown. The wireless earphones' integration with Google Translate "sounds very useful at offset, but its execution is so awkward that simply using your telephone ends up beingness a more compelling option," we wrote in our Pixel Buds review.

About Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo is PCMag'southward expert on fitness and smart abode products. Pedagogy yoga for about 10 years has helped her in evaluating a range of connected health products including fettle trackers, center rate monitors, rowers, smart scales, stationary bikes, strength grooming machines, treadmills, and more. Angela also tests smart domicile devices from her ranch in Florida, including air purifiers, kitchen appliances, and robot vacuums, just to proper name a few.