Working with languages on the go is a must for travelers, business people, students, and multilinguals of all kinds. It can be difficult to know which tools to use on mobile devices that translate quickly and accurately while respecting your privacy and without taking up too much space on your device.
if you use gmail on iphone or ipad, this short guide will tell you how to translate the content of any email. Soon you will be able to read any message from anyone in any language!
Step one: Get a translator
There are many options of translation apps in the app store, but very few translate the text at its source. most translators like google translate or apple translate require you to copy the text into an email, go to the translate app, paste the text and get the result; then if you want to reply you need to translate in the app and do the same. reverse process to copy the text and place it in your email application.
To reduce all these steps and translate from gmail, try translate mate. Unlike other translation apps, mate doesn’t require you to leave your current task to translate: it’s designed to translate right where you are so you can stay in your workflow.
step two: open an email in gmail
Now that you have a translator handy, open an email you’d like to translate. don’t bother looking for one in a foreign language because we can translate from your native language to any other language for proof.
if you’re using something like google translate, you can copy the text from the email and go into the app to translate it and then copy it back. this is quite annoying and distracts you from working productively through your gmail inbox.
if you have mate, continue to the next step to find out how quick and easy it is to translate without leaving the gmail app on your iphone or ipad.
step three: translate directly in gmail with mate
These steps are very simple. once you translate correctly the first time, you’ll have no problem translating any emails you want in the future.
- highlight the text you want to translate by holding your finger on it and dragging the dots on either end to refine your selection.
- click “share…” in the popup.
- click “translate with partner”.
Note that if the ‘Translate with Mate’ action doesn’t appear on the top like on our screenshot, scroll to the very bottom, tap Edit Actions, find Mate and add it to Favorites.Brilliant! That’s it. In the Mate popup, you’ll be able to choose from 100+ languages to translate to and from and then paste the result into your email, all without leaving the Gmail app.
This should save you little bits of time every day that add up to a lot of time saved so you can reclaim your days for more important work or play. maybe you can even sleep better without wasting so much time jumping between tools.
other translation secrets
use matte elsewhere
mate is the best option for translating directly in gmail, but the utility doesn’t end there. Now that you know how to make the couple popup magically appear, you can also try it in other applications, like safari.
If you’re feeling more adventurous, you can even translate netflix subtitles to learn a language while having fun!
protect your privacy
While it may be tempting to stick with another translator you’re used to, keep your privacy in mind. free translators make you the product by selling your data to advertisers and other third parties.
mate takes a strong stance on privacy – you can read about it in plain, easy-to-understand language. why is this important? here is an example:
itranslate, another popular language app, has a 7000 word policy full of legal jargon and complex jargon.
mate translate has a 700 word policy that is very clear and written for customers.
mate’s privacy manifesto is 10 times shorter and 100 times more understandable.