iOS 14 update: Will Google Translate become redundant on iPhone 12? AI-powered A14 Bionic Neural engine translation feature set to transform Safari and App Store

Rumors indicate that iOS 14 might make major strides in terms of leveraging AI and the Neural Engine on the Apple iPhone 12 series' A14 Bionic SoC. Analyzing a leaked early build of iOS 14 that they'd purportedly had access to, 9to5Mac claimed that the Neural engine will be utilized to provide a seamless translation and localization experience in Safari, as well as other core Apple apps. This would be a major boon for iOS users on the upcoming iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro lineups, expected to launch with iOS 14.

At present, translation is an issue with Safari on iOS, and one of the areas where Android genuinely does a better job. Safari doesn't offer in-app translation. This means that iOS users have to manually copy links over to third-party translation software like Google Translate.

A seamless, in-app experience would make it considerably easier to access content in languages like Spanish, Chinese, Russian, and Hindi. There's a lot of localized, non-English tech content (including on this website), aimed towards audiences from particular regions. In-app translation could make that content more accessible.

9To5Mac goes on to claim that the Neural engine will be leveraged to enable automatic translation in other Apps, such as the App Store. The solution would automatically translate content on screen (such as foreign language user reviews) into the default language, providing a more consistent experience. While in-app translation is a step forward, a lot depends on its implementation.

Google Translate, the go-to option for machine translation, tends to deliver less-than-stellar results. In some cases, the machine-translation is only marginally more helpful than the foreign language original.

It'll be interesting to see if Apple's leverages its Neural engine AI tech to deliver seamless machine translations that actually make sense.