Google just dropped a new AI feature that instantly makes Apple look embarrassing, but it’s the sheer scale that truly destroys the competition

According to Techspot, Google just rolled out a massive update to the Google Translate app, introducing Gemini-powered live speech translation that blows competing features like Apple’s out of the water. Live translation is quickly becoming one of the most practical and competitive uses of generative AI, and this new approach by Google scales far wider, supporting significantly more languages and far more headphone models than anything else out there.

Starting today, if you own an Android device, you can jump into the beta and begin testing this powerful feature. This isn’t just a simple text-to-speech engine, which is great news for conversational clarity. The new AI integration relies on Gemini to make text translations sound much more natural and nuanced than they did before. If you’re using the Google Translate app, you can now sync your device with any pair of headphones to receive live translations of conversations, speeches, movies, and even TV shows.

I love that Gemini attempts to keep the original speaker’s tone, emphasis, and cadence intact. Plus, both live and text translations can localize idioms instead of translating them literally, which is a huge quality-of-life improvement that prevents awkward misunderstandings.

It’s the scale of this new Google feature that makes Apple look amateur-ish

The beta is currently live on Android devices across the US, Mexico, and India, and it supports over 70 languages right away. That list includes major languages like English, Spanish, German, French, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Crucially, it also covers more specific languages like Zulu, Ukrainian, standard Arabic, and Palestinian Arabic. If you’re an iPhone user, don’t worry too much; support for iOS devices and more countries is expected to arrive next year.

Compare that incredible reach to what Apple is offering. Apple introduced a similar live translation feature with iOS 26. While users with iPhones that support Apple Intelligence can get live translations of text and verbal conversations, the audio feature is painfully limited. It only supports a few select AirPods models, and it’s restricted to just nine languages: Mandarin Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and European Spanish.

This massive difference in functionality reflects Google’s aggressive investment in Gemini. Gemini is rapidly catching up to ChatGPT’s user base, forcing competitors like OpenAI to pivot their feature roadmap just to counter Google’s progress. Apple Intelligence, by comparison, is a latecomer to the whole AI battle and still relies heavily on external models such as GPT. The long-term maturity of Google Translate also helps explain why Gemini’s language support is so much broader right out of the gate.

While the live audio translation is definitely the star of the show, Google also updated its standard text translations. Gemini-powered text translations are now available in the US and India, supporting 20 languages including Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, and German. You can try these improved text translations on the Android and iOS apps, as well as on the web.

Finally, Google didn’t forget about language learners. The Translate app has updated its language learning tools to resemble Duolingo more closely. These courses now provide improved feedback and allow you to track your daily progress easily. Support has expanded to almost 20 new countries, including Germany, India, Sweden, and Taiwan, which is excellent for global accessibility.

Besides this revolutionary progress in translation, Google also made strides recently by introducing realistic ‘Likeness’ avatars for Android XR users and a nifty way to find your car in huge, confusing parking lots.