Taking a trip down the memory lane when Google unveiled the lens feature aimed at helping users easily translate text by pointing their phone cameras to respective text, little did we know KaiOS users would at some point have it under their thumbs. Well as it looks, the feature which currently supports a ton of languages is now available for KaiOS devices.
Amongst the long changelog for the Google Lens feature, was the addition on Google Go based devices a few months after launch, a couple of more languages were supported and now KaiOS is onboard. There have been some interesting discussions concerning the relevancy of the OS considering a lot of manufacturers are now producing smartphones that cost just under Ksh. 5,000. Take for example Safaricom’s Neon Kicka 5 which costs less than Ksh. 4,000 and still offers smartphone level experience.
I remember a while back when I really needed a backup device just for a couple of days and even considered getting the Faiba’s Wonder Phone, to be honest, after doing some digging here and there, it seemed like I’d be at home with most used apps onboard such as YouTube, Google Maps and even WhatsApp.
Since most of us will be getting the Wonder Phone regardless of the OS it runs, here is something you should know about KaiOS. Just like we have android and iOS for the heavyweights, KaiOS is not just linux based but rather targets a different niche of users. The OS is used mainly on feature phones to bring some of the coveted smartphone experiences on the low-end genre. It can run top apps such as Google Maps, YouTube, as well as the Google Assistant.
How to use Google’s camera-based translation on Faiba’s wonder phone or any KaiOS device
Users will need to launch the Google Assistant by long-pressing the center button with a mic and then tap on the camera icon. You can then point to whichever text you wish to be translated instantly. Not all languages are supported though, but we hope Google will add them in due course.