Tech giant Microsoft has rolled out a handful of new features for its Translator app. The features, which were rolled out on Thursday Feb. 18, vary on the iOS and Android platform.

For the Android platform, Microsoft Translator now functions even in the offline mode. Although this might sound unfeasible, Microsoft claims that its Translator on Android feature is as accurate as its online translator contemporaries. Microsoft was able to achieve this feat by integrating a deep neural network-powered engine, the same engine that powers Skype's auto translate function as well as Bing's Translator function.

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In a statement posted on the official Microsoft blog, the Redmond-based tech company wrote, "Deep Neural Networks, also known as Deep Learning, is a state-of-the-art Machine Learning technology that has been in use for almost a year by the popular Microsoft Translator cloud service to deliver high-quality translations to the many experiences it powers."

In order to take advantage of this updated Translator on Android, users need to download specific language translation packs in order to make it work. Microsoft said that the language packs can be downloaded for free. At the time of this writing, only nine language packs were available; simplified Chinese, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Microsoft said that it working to expand its support to other languages.

For iOS users, the update will bring in access to Microsoft's Optical Character Recognition Engine (OCR). This is the same engine that has powered Translator on Windows Phones since 2010. Devices with activated OCR engine can translate written words like street signs or restaurant menus directly on the phones' camera roll.

Microsoft's Optical Character Recognition Engine currently supports 21 languages including traditional and simplified Chinese, Turkish, Russian and Hungarian.

Microsoft said that these two features are still unavailable on other platforms, but it is working in order to integrate it.

TagsMicrosoft, Microsoft Translator, Translator for Android, Translator for iOS, Microsoft Translator for iOS, Microsoft Translator for Android