Google Translate is already an extremely useful service, but it's going to get even better later this year thanks to artificial intelligence.

As CNET reports, Google was showing off a number of its AI projects earlier this week in San Francisco. One of them is a new feature heading to the Google Translate app a few months from now which allows a conversation to be transcribed in real-time while simultaneously being translated into another language.

From a practical point of view it would allow two individuals who speak different languages to hold a conversation simply by reading what the other person says from the app on their phone. As it happens in real-time, the conversation should be able to flow normally without much of a pause. Other uses include attending a lecture in a language you don't understand, or watching a movie and generating your own subtitles through the app.

Testing is currently ongoing for multiple languages including French, German, and Spanish. When the feature does roll out to the Translate app, it will require an internet connection to work. The workload for performing real-time transcription and translation happens on Google's servers, which I'm sure your phone battery will be very happy to hear.

If it works flawlessly, then Google Translate is going to become an even more essential tool to have installed on your phone, especially when traveling. We don't have a launch date for the feature, but hopefully we'll all be using it before Q3.