Google began turning smartphones into real-time language translators - of written and spoken content - on Wednesday.

The California-based Internet titan is hoping that, along with making it easier for people to understand one another during their travels, Google Translate will serve as a useful tool for teachers, medical personnel, police and others with important roles in increasingly multilingual communities.

The company began rolling out a new version of a free Google Translate application that, in part, lets people point Android or Apple smartphones at signs, menus, recipes or other material written in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian or Spanish and see it in English.