Bing-powered translations have returned to Twitter.
The social network announced the news in a tweet, saying that it was introducing tweet translation with Bing translator.
We're introducing Tweet translation with @Bing Translator so you can read Tweets in multiple languages: https://t.co/RuraBeYa5S
— Twitter (@twitter) January 22, 2015
“Introducing” really means “Reintroducing”, as Twitter used to have Bing-powered translations – but they were instant and appeared automatically below tweets in foreign (to you) languages. Twitter axed that feature in August of last year.
Translation tool appears as a globe icon in the upper-right-hand corner of tweets. It’s now available on desktop, iOS, Android, and Tweetdeck.
A disclaimer as to why the translations are sometimes shitty:
“Although Bing Translator relies on advanced translation software to provide Tweet translations, the results still vary and often fall below the accuracy and fluency of translations provided by a professional translator. For this reason, the original text is always displayed above its translation.”
Still, it’s better than nothing.