I'm on a bit of a translation kick these days as I am trying to learn Spanish.  I recently discovered Google chat bots (additional languages) that will auto-translate in Google Chat.  These are out of Google Code Labs.  Almost all of the options are pairs of English and non-English languages.  French-German and Traditional Chinese-Chinese are also supported.

By inviting these bots to a group chat (add them to your contacts first), they listen for a particular language and automatically translate it into another language.  Invite the Spanish-English bot to your chat and everything said in Spanish will be translated into English.  Invite the English-Spanish bot as well and you could have a conversation between English-only and Spanish-only speakers.

Does it work?  The translations are correct most of the time, but the bots get a little buggy,  The bot that is supposed to be translating into your language will often repeat your sentences, altering word order or translating sections.  Also, the chat always lists an extra participant.  In my case 5 participants, when there were only 4 (2 people + 2 bots).  Given this is a free service (a Google 20% project), these are small details.

Overall, the translate bots are useful if you want to have a conversation with someone with whom you don't share fluency in a common language.

Thanks to #PublicHealthNinja Baltica Cabieses for helping test the bots.