Slew of Google products, apps for Indian users on cards

Google Chief Sundar Pichai was ably supported by the Vice-Presidents of departments, who spoke about their products.

The company shared slew of plans, but the most exciting were ‘Tap to Translate’ and ‘Chromebit’.

Tap to Translate In the first quarter of next year, Google will release a feature called ‘Tap to Translate’ that allows the instant translation of any text on the Android phone. For example, if one does not understand how to read English or Hindi and wants to understand in Tamil, he/ she can just put the smartphone’s camera focused on the words and then Google will automatically translate them into Tamil scripts.

Also, one can translate messages into different languages without leaving the app.

“Many of us spend lots of time copying messages from friends or colleagues, translating them, writing responses, translating their responses and then pasting them back into an app. With ‘Tap to Translate’, you can copy text anywhere on your Android phone and instantly get the translation, right then and there — without ever leaving the app,” Caesar Sengupta, Vice-President for Google’s Next Billion initiatives, said.

Similarly, the Chromebit, a small device like a data card, turns a monitor into a computer and updates any older operating system to Chrome. It will be available in India starting January. It will help boost computing in the education sector, the company said. Google will launch the device along with its partner Asus for ₹7,999 in early January.

Offline Maps The company also said it will work more on Offline Maps that allows real-time navigation of roads and searches for locations without a data connection.

“Offline Maps is a feature we expect to be useful around the world, and countries like India will truly benefit when it comes to accessing Google Maps with expensive, slow or limited connectivity,” Jen Fitzpatrick, Vice-President of Product Management for Google Maps, said.

In fact, India is one of the top five countries that have the most people using Offline Maps right now, she added.

Also, on offline features for YouTube that Google had launched last year, to help people watch videos without a connection. It announced an additional feature that will let videos buffer while they are paused for those on limited bandwidth.

“We believe that every person should be able to experience YouTube at its best: in high quality, with few delays and limited buffering,” Eyal Manor, Vice-President of Engineering for YouTube, said.