Translation apps are essential whenever you’re traveling in a country where the residents speak a foreign language. However, traveling in foreign countries is when you’re most likely to have spotty or zero coverage, so your translation apps become useless. Microsoft Translator

Microsoft has updated its Translator app for Android and iOS with offline translation support for several languages, using AI power even when an Internet connection is not available.

This means the company has addressed one of the biggest headaches of people traveling in foreign countries with huge roaming charges, as the Translator app can be used on mobile devices by simply downloading a language pack in advance.

There are only a few languages available right now, like English, Chinese, French, German, and Russian, but more are on the way in future updates to the app.

Of course, there are some caveats and limitations with offline translation in the Microsoft Translator app.

For example, to get it to work without a data connection, you’ll need to download language packs ahead of time. As of today, those packs are limited to Arabic, Chinese-Simplified, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Thai. Microsoft promises more languages will come soon.

Another caveat is that the cloud-based translations you receive when you have a data connection and the offline translations won’t be on the same quality level.

Microsoft assures us that the difference is barely noticeable in most cases, but the fact remains that you’re more vulnerable to spotty translations if you’re running offline. Microsoft Translator