Japan Goggles App Reviews

Its true that it doesnt get every character, every time. Like any technology, this is partially due to human error. Ive found that if Im a little patient and careful, it generally recognizes the characters Im querying. Its far better than guessing and searching manually, and it even recognizes handwritten characters. I absolutely love this app!! I would pay for it if I had to because it does everything I need it to!

Wont recognize characters.. TT_TT

Because this needs more work. Seems very hit and miss, and it doesnt translate phrases, just individual characters. Docomo has a new app that I would love to get, but its Japan only. That app is the one to copy.

Dont believe all these 1 star votes. Those are impatient people who expect instant miracle perfect translations and didnt take the time to try and figure out how to use the app. You will need to focus on the Kanji and have some idea of where one word ends and the others begin. Get only the word you want in frame, hit analyze and then choose the best match for the kanji as the automatic choice will usually be a little off. But with a fraction of patience you can get the word youre looking for. I have successfully translated several kanji, including compound kanji words, and I just started using it. Great app. Beyond useful to those living in Japan with limited kanji ability.

I love this app

It doesnt work well at all.

Despite a previous viewer who claims those who vote 1 star are "impatient and dont know how to use the app", I used every option possible and attempted multiple kanji compounds as well as singular kanji. It wasnt just "a little off" or anything of the sort. The correct kanji NEVER came up. The suggestions werent even close.

This definitely beats counting strokes and looking up kanji by stroke count. Works best on a single kanji character or just a very few. It takes a few tries to get it right and is very sensitive. I suggest setting the refresh to one second and use the live camera and not the photo. Once you see the correct kanji pop up, press analyze. If you can write kanji that looks well written, it can also recognize it. I believe it is intended for printed text and not scripted cursive or handwriting that looks fancy like old English. The people that gave this a poor review obviously dont know the pain of not knowing what a single kanji in a string of text is like. This app is not intended to translate full strings of text or sentences but rather a single or few kanji characters for clarification. Perfect for people that are still studying Japanese like myself. Doesnt work as well on cameras before the iPhone 5 generation due to the lack of ability to focus on close objects with clarity.

the execution is pretty wonky. really what this app is okay at is identifying individual problem kanji- didnt really work for me when I did whole sentences. for me, using the "analyze" button has been the most useful. also seems to randomly crash.

With enough finagling or hand writing kanji on paper to get better results, it can get the job done when you are in Japan and dont know kanji. Just too often it picks the wrong radicals, or gets a portion correct and doesnt offer the correct one as one of the options. With some radicals, it never considers the kanji as one but tries to separate them, so you can never get the translation no matter how you try to photograph or re-write For clearer ages. Also doesnt translate katakana or hiragana for the most part, dont know why since the app works with google translate for the kanji. It works, but be prepared for spending a chunk of your time manipulating the app to get the job done.

Good idea, bad performance. Didnt get any kanji right.

Not a good buy at all! Nothing like the tv where you point to a sign sign and see what is says quickly!

There is nothing more to say.

I dont understand the low rating for this app - it is simply amazing for what it does: return readings and definitions for unknown Japanese characters. I tried it on a variety of font sizes using an iPhone 5 in Live Camera mode and it was near perfect. However, I imagine it only works on block characters - dont expect it to work on hand written text or fancy scripts. Highly recommended!!

This app is difficult to use and recognizes almost no characters--not even simple things like foods. Completely useless! Beware!

Tried it on a fairly straight forward photo. Recognized the kanji ok, but could never provide any translation.

Keep improving it please. Now its completely inaccurate.

Its sad to see this with such negative reviews! It works super well with my iPhone 6, didnt work at all on iPhone 3 though.

I wanted something to translate signs and text while walking around Tokyo. I had hopes for a Japanese version of Word Lens, and while this does seem to translate characters which is pretty impressive, it doesnt make reading entire sentences possible. It isnt really usable for live/walking-around-Tokyo needs.

First of all, I tried testing this out on some basic characters and it was about as far off as you could possibly imagine. Secondly, the camera interface is terrible; for whatever reason, when I try to take a picture through the app, it doesnt show the image on the screen while Im trying to aim. Might be a compatibility issue with the newer iOS (I think I have 8.2). Anyway, this app is completely useless for me.