I don’t know about you, but whenever I use Google Translate for an entire sentence, I never expect the translation to go smooth. It’s not just me. The more distant the two languages (etymologically speaking), the harder it is for Google’s hamsters to pedal. Enter Linqapp, now available not just on Android but iOS too.

I find it convenient to pull out my phone – instead of reaching for the keyboard – to do a quick machine translation. But with Linqapp, I might just do that exclusively. Instead of leveraging cloud technology, Linqapp asks a real person to translate my query. And it’s more reliable than you’d think.

Now available on hundreds of millions of new devices

Linqapp is old news, but not to iOS customers. The app’s developers have only just launched the product on iPhones and iPads and it’s already making a splash with the Apple community. Who can blame them? Getting human-powered translations knocks the socks off Google’s often-unreliable offerings.

Photo by Amador Loureiro on Unsplash

You can take a quick picture or record an audio clip and ask any question about it, as well as jot down text the old fashioned way and ask people to translate it for you. You get direct assistance from native speakers for any question, and you can even use the tool for social purposes – i.e. to find language partners and text each other. Hence the reason why everyone so crazy about it. And there’s more.

Clever reward system ensures reliability

You know you’re getting a good answer when the user’s level and reputation are high. You get points for helping others out, and those points grow your reputation. This makes you trustworthy in the eyes of those asking assistance. Racking up a sizable amount of points also helps you build more reputation exponentially.

I took an instant liking to the service, but I’ll be the first to admit that some things need some serious tweaking. The activation process is less than straightforward, and the app is prone to crashing. But it’s nothing that the developers can’t fix 🙂