My Spanish Travel Phases - A Mobile App for Android

My Spanish Travel Phrases is a mobile English-to-Spanish phrasebook.   And because of it's simple interface, it can also serve as a Spanish-to-English mobile phrasebook.  This page is going to give you a tour of the app and show you how to get the most out of this app.

Before we get started, I want to emphasis that this app is designed for you, the customer.  Whether you're using the free version or the paid version, I want this app to be useful.  And with that said, I'm looking for your input.  This app needs to be able to meet your needs as a traveler, ex-pat, or even an aspiring Spanish speaker.  You can leave your comments and suggestions below, or email them to me at hylsapps@gmail.com.

OK, Let's take a look at the app.  It's actually quite simple to use.

This is the opening screen:

By default, all the phrases are listed.  Use the search box at the top of the screen to find the phrase you're looking for.  Each entry shows not only the Spanish translation, but the category the phrase is belongs to as well.

Speaking of categories, here are the categories currently in the phrase book.


Restaurant, Airport, Shopping, Hotel, Transportation, Time, Weather, Idiom, Introductions, Directions,
Romance, Courtesy, Money, Banking, Telephone, Greetings, Farewells, Asking for Help, Health


Although the majority of phrasebooks show everything grouped by category on the main screen, that really isn't the fastest or most intuitive way to find what you're looking for.  You already know what you want to say, so with My Spanish Travel Phrases you can leverage the power of the search box to find what you want right away.  Let's look at three different ways to leverage the search box.

(1) If you know exactly what you want to say, simply type it in.  In the case of an exact match, the phrase will appear.

For example:  What time is it?

 

On thing to remember when you try to do an exact search is that sometimes we say the same thing a little differently.  For example, you might search for "Can you get me a taxi", and find nothing.  But if you search for "Can you call me a taxi", you'll find a match.  So just because an exact search didn't find your phrase, that doesn't mean it's not there.  In this case you can avoid the whole problem just by typing "taxi".   Search method #2 talks about this in detail.


(2) If you didn't find an exact match, or you're not exactly sure of what you want to say, type in a word related to what you want to say.  All the phrases that contain that word will appear, regardless of the category the phrase(s) are assigned to.

     For example - hotel

Notice that a search for "hotel" returns phrases from several categories, Directions, Hotel and Transportation.

(3) Lastly, you can type in a category name.  All phrases that belong to that category will appear.

     For example - Airport

And that's it.  Here are a few more features of the app.

After you typed something into the search box and you want to perform another search, you can press anywhere in the search box, hold it for about 2 seconds (aka a "long press").  The search box will automatically clear the contents allowing you start a new search.

The app has a "full screen" feature.  Once you've located the phrase you need, simply tap and the app will open the phrase in full screen mode.  Viewing a phrase in full screen mode offers two advantages.

1. The phrase appears in larger letters which are easier to view.  
2. If you're having trouble communicating with someone, simply put the phrase in full screen mode  and show it to them.

When you're viewing a phrase, you might want to see all the phrases in the same category.  To do this, long press on the phrase and the app will display all the phrases in the same category.

So for example, you're viewing the phrase "what time is it?".  Notice that this phrase is in the "Time" category.

Now long press on the phrase, and you see all the phrases in the "Time" category.

That's it!  It's a very simple and straight-forward app, after a few minutes of playing around you'll be navigating the app like a pro.