Gmail launches automatic email translation tool

Gmail, Google’s email service, has launched Message Translation, a service which automatically translates 41 languages.

The feature integrates Google Translate technology into Gmail and will appear within Gmail Labs as an experiment called “Message Translation”. It will be available to Gmail users around the world.

Message Translation will automatically translate email conversations between 41 languages, allowing people from different countries to conduct entire conversations in multiple languages. Each participant will be able to read the emails in whichever language they prefer.

The service will go some way to solving age-old problems of communication barriers between different nationalities, such as a holiday romances or friendships made while travelling.

Gmail is a free search-based email service that combines the features of email with Google’s search technology and supplies more than 7GB of free storage space.

It has launched a raft of new features this year through Gmail Labs, such as a take-back button for undoing a ‘send’ command. This tool holds the email for five seconds after you have pressed the send button and allows retrieval.

According to web monitoring company ComScore, more than 113 million use the service worldwide every month.