6 days ago
Here's your first look at Google Translate's Conversation mode redesign (APK teardown)
Rita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR Google is set to revamp the Google Translate app's Conversation mode, featuring Gemini-based branding and smarter AI integration.
Updates include clearer speaker identification, quick language-switch chips, inline translations, and visual tweaks across automatic and manual modes.
Some settings, like toggling manual modes, are now hidden, reducing immediate accessibility.
Google has been working on significant UI updates to the Translate app to better accommodate its upcoming AI-driven features like Insights, Regional variants, Ask a Question, and Practice. But that's not the only part of the app getting a UI refresh, as we've now spotted more changes slated for Google Translate, this time targeting the Conversation mode.
Authority Insights story on Android Authority. Discover
You're reading anstory on Android Authority. Discover Authority Insights for more exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage you won't find anywhere else.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
Google Translate v9.13.97 includes code that overhauls Google Translate's Conversation mode in various ways. We managed to activate the upcoming changes to give you an early look.
Starting with the main Conversation mode screen, the more straightforward UI is making way for a richer one.
Current
Upcoming
In the new UI, we see a prominent 'Built with ✦Gemini' branding on the screen, along with a subtle disclaimer at the bottom that generative AI can make mistakes. There are also a few suggestion chips for quickly changing the language of the second speaker, and we reckon these could change depending on the user's region. There's a new button for turning auto-playback on and off, which previously needed going into the settings icon on the top right.
Missing in this new UI is a Gemini-style icon for switching to manual conversation mode, so you need to access it in the Settings screen.
The UI will look different once you begin the conversation. For conversations with automatic language detection, it's going to look like what you see below:
Current
Upcoming
The upcoming UI does a significantly better job of highlighting which speaker is speaking and does a good job of inline translation, too.
The conversation mode also has a manual mode, which places two mic icons on the screen. This mode gives more control to the people in the conversation as the app doesn't automatically detect conversations (and doesn't always keep the mic on). The UI for this mode will also see changes:
Current
Upcoming
The ongoing conversation is much easier to follow in the upcoming UI than in the current UI.
Google Translate also has a face-to-face conversation mode, where the second conversation is flipped so you can share the phone between two users for a face-to-face bilingual conversation. This UI is also slated to receive some changes, and you can see them in the screenshots below for the automatic language detection mode:
Face to Face conversations with automatic speaker/language detection: Current
Face to Face conversations with automatic speaker/language detection: Upcoming
The manual mode for face-to-face conversations will have a new splashscreen highlighting Gemini, and other bits have also changed:
Current
Upcoming
Upcoming
Switching to manual conversation mode will take extra steps in the new UI as the option is moved to the Settings sheet:
Current
Upcoming
To round it up, here's a video showing off all the upcoming changes in one clip:
These changes to Google Translate's Conversation Mode haven't been announced yet, nor have they been rolled out. We'll keep you updated when we learn more.
Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at
Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
