Facebook Messenger now gives you a reason to make friends who primarily speak Spanish as it has received the anticipated update to let users translate messages from Spanish to English and vice-versa. The new translation functionality comes through the artificial intelligence (AI) backed M Translations that Facebook had unveiled at its F8 developer conference last month. Initially, translations are possible only in the US and Mexico. We can expect a broader rollout of the latest development in the coming future, though.
If you receive a message from your friend in English or Spanish but you haven’t set either language as your default language, the M bot available on the Messenger app will push a module that you need to tap once to enable auto-translate functionality. This will automatically translate all the messages you receive from that friend. Of course, you can also opt out anytime if you no longer want the advanced support.
Since the translation feature is limited to the US and Mexico at the initial stage, you won’t be able to experience its advantage in any other regions. Having said that, it is likely to be expanded to other markets and various other languages in the coming future. First reported by Engadget, the feature was originally launched to enable translations between buyers and sellers in the Marketplace.
Earlier this month, Facebook Messenger started serving autoplaying video ads to monetise the platform that has over 1.3 billion monthly active users. Facebook also recently reduced ‘Now Connected on Messenger’ alerts using machine learning algorithms to uplift the experience.