Facebook today announced it is expanding chat translation within Messenger to all users in the United States and Mexico.
When you receive a message in a language that is different from your default language in Messenger, Facebook`s artificial intelligence assistant M will automatically offer a suggestion to translate the message. When you tap on the suggestion, you will be asked to enable auto-translation. Upon doing so, all future messages received that are not in your default language will be automatically translated.
`This is a meaningful milestone for M Suggestions and will enable people to connect with people they would not be able to communicate with otherwise in a way that is seamless and natural,` a Messenger spokesperson said.
Auto-translation is enabled on a per-conversation basis, and all messages are shown in both the original language and translated version. You can opt-out of the feature at any time via the M Settings menu in Messenger, accessible by tapping your profile picture in the top-left corner of the app.
At launch, M can translate from English to Spanish, and vice versa. Facebook plans to add other languages and countries in the future.
Facebook first launched chat translation via M for users of its Marketplace service in the United States in early May. M Suggestions as a whole launched in April 2017, and are now available in 11 countries and five languages.
At its F8 developer conference last month, Facebook previewed an upcoming redesign of Messenger, including a simplified user interface, a dark mode, and customizable chat bubbles. At the time, the company said the facelift will be available `very, very soon,` but as of now, the update has yet to be rolled out.
Apple is known to have looked at a similar implementation of Siri in iMessage as M in Messenger. A patent published in 2016 for a `virtual assistant in a communication session` depicts a scenario in which users can invoke ...
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