# Google Translate Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-translate/ 40 people recommended Google Translate in Hacker News comments, 20 had mixed feelings and 61 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 12 months, in 36 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** More people criticize it than recommend it. Free, handy for everyday text, photos and conversation, and many find it faithful to the original. Critics say it is often crude and trails DeepL on idiomatic output. Summary written by Claude from the comments below. ## What people warn about - Output often crude or inaccurate (3 comments in the sample): "all the automated options out there (wether it's Furiganator, the chrome extension, or Google Translate's pronunciation) are far from 100% accurate" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50137164)) "With Google Translate you'd get a super sketchy translation out, very crude and not at all correct or idiomatic in the target language." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46753288)) "After the lecture I reviewed the current production grade google translate… it butchered the translation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47311676)) - Invents content beyond the source text (2 comments in the sample): "these days it "interprets" way too much, confabulating like an LLM and inserting stuff that's way beyond what's in the text" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49874754)) "translation was (I think) mapping typical sentences from the source language to the corresponding typical situation in the target language" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47638979)) - Poor for language learning (2 comments in the sample): "try looking up its meaning using a dictionary in the 2nd language you're practicing instead of using google translate" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46019594)) "high chance you learn little to nothing by using it, and yet the user can hold up their phone to some Arabic or Chinese text" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49954659)) - Trails DeepL and other tools (2 comments in the sample): "Google Translation never "became very good" and it still isn't when you compare it to DeepL or Kagi." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46291687)) "I honestly don't care what Google Translate does, because nobody who is serious about translation uses it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45987537)) ## Why people recommend it - Natural tone that keeps the original style (4 comments in the sample): "Google Translate is exceptionally good at maintaining naturalness when you put a multi-sentence/multi-paragraph block through it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46208069)) "Google Translate is actually good these days, and seems to mostly preserve the original tone" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50013909)) "Google Translate won't fluff out the output with garbage or reformat everything with emoji." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46802520)) - Works well for everyday translation (4 comments in the sample): "Google translate has offered machine translation for 20+ years that is more or less adequate to understand text written in a language I don't read." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46321307)) "I use G translate daily to handle living in a country where 95% of the population doesn’t speak any language I do." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46210018)) "for a majority of people old fashioned Google Translate works great" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46802409)) - Useful for live conversation (3 comments in the sample): "we were able to talk for an hour or more about fountain pens and tomoe river paper alternatives using Google translate’s dialogue feature" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45859648)) "the latest Google Translate features based on the all voice real-time 3.5 Live model is as good as I have tried in Live Modes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49658888)) "it generates sentences around a theme you specify and speaks them to you at varying speeds" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48868916)) - Translates text in photos and camera (2 comments in the sample): "Google translate will take a photo with foreign text in it, translate the text" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48951218)) "the best I've found is using Google Translate via camera/images" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46676466)) ## Other translation services people recommend - [Kagi Translate](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kagi-translate/): 45 recommend, 3 mixed, 23 criticize - [DeepL Translator](https://hackerapproved.com/p/deepl/): 21 recommend, 4 mixed, 13 criticize - [Firefox Translations](https://hackerapproved.com/p/firefox-translations/): 21 recommend, 5 mixed, 4 criticize ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://translate.google.com/) ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Google Translate", https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-translate/ (40 recommend, 20 mixed, 61 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.