In this browser extension, however, things just stay closer to the typed text. How do I use Google Translate on my browser? However, its most advanced features are the camera scanning, which will take a photo and scan the visible text there and the speech recognition, which will translate your recorded voice to the selected language. You can also do freehand writing-the tool will scan your written characters for familiar symbols on its database to parse your handwriting. You can do the old-fashioned way of typing in the words or copy-pasting it to the translation box. The program allows you to input text any way you want.