[Feedback] Please add settings option for turning off contextual AI translations

While I appreciate the new feature, it can be very jarring and unnecessary when correct translations are already available; now I have this loading icon taking up the top position.

I would appreciate an option in the settings to turn it off, so I could use it only when I need it.

Thanks a lot!

3 Likes

How do you know when you need it? There is no way you can know if the translations in the popular meanings are correct or not. The top position doesn’t even mean the best translation available when more translations exist.

Not sure why they have decided to remove the settings on/off, but I would leave it always ON if I were you.

1 Like

It doesn’t provide articles like der, die, das and it also takes another place from the previously available potential translations. For me it makes using the interfaces jarring.

Edit: Several other issues

  • it often provides wrong translations
  • I prefer some the stored translations that have multiple meanings and other details

Dear Lingq devs, please do not force new features on users without their consent.

2 Likes

Thanks for your feedback, I’ll check with our team if we can add settings for it.

2 Likes

contextual AI it’s all I have in translation to my native language (Hebrew). a lot of users need it. There are no common translations of other users into Hebrew at all. I can only use AI translation (which is really accurate).

2 Likes

Its important that I am not against this feature; I just want to use it selectively: for German, there are very often very good & detailed translations. In that case I prefer stored translations. However, with other and less popular languages like Czech I find contextual translation very useful.

I just need the ability to switch it on/off depending the situation.

1 Like

I agree. I would like to switch it off. It has created a glitch where all my dictionary definitions are put into one entry and I have to click a second time to separate them.

1 Like

Unfortunately, this is not a glitch. This is a new feature according to Mark. Apparently, there should be an option coming in the next few days to deactivate it. I too thought I was dealing with a bug because I find it looks terrible on screen.

2 Likes

This. They could at least have though of making the text box’s size adjust to the amount of text, to make it look less … glitchty.

Another negative side effect is that words sometimes have a completely different meaning when used together with a different word, especially in combination with auxiliary verbs. In this case I prefer to have seperate entries for those case as a visual divider, so to speak. Having them thrown all together really makes things hard, and to me it is hard to understand why anyone considered this to be a good idea to begin with.

I mean, adding a new definition to an already existing one in the same entry might be useful in some situations, but then the users should decide whether they are in such a situation, as obviously the application itself is unable to do so properly.

1 Like

There is a very easy way to know if the popular translations are correct or not actually. I’m not trying to be a dick when I say this, but it’s called a dictionary. For languages like Arabic I’m not going to rely on the AI. This update has already proven very annoying and is constantly throwing up wrong responses. Not to mention the existing popular meanings seem to have largely disappeared.

1 Like

I really want an option to deactivate this. I’ve just rescubscribed and this update has totally killed the joy and my trust in using the meanings. Can we get some timelines on fixes and or a deactivate button? I didn’t subscribe to this product.

1 Like

@JargonArabiyeh exactly, a dictionary is what I use to write thousands of definitions that end up to be popular meanings for others. Because a lot of popular meaning definitions are just rubbish. That’s why you need to check a dictionary to be sure a definition you see on the popular meaning is correct (that’s why my previous answer).
If you have AI telling the same thing that another popular meaning definition, the chances that the definition you see is correct are higher. That’s why is better to have it as a double check possibility.
I personally almost always check the dictionary anyway because sometimes two wrongs don’t make it right.

The popular meaning is NOT a dictionary, it is other users randomly writing definitions, or Google Translate.

NB: the possibility to disable this feature on iOS is already existing, btw.

1 Like

I have to second this; the AI feature has been nothing but problems for me and I’d love to turn it off. The AI often includes additional words next to the unknown word in the definition, making me go in to fix it so I learn the word correctly when I see it in a different context.
It takes me twice as long to make Lingq’s now. Please give us the option to turn this off ASAP.

1 Like

Yes, this doesn’t make sense at all. It wasn’t like this few days ago, they must have touched something that made it worse!

If I have to countercheck every suggestion made via a dictionary, which is what I am doing often enough both with popular meanings and now with the ai translation, I begin to wonder what the benefit of those “features” are to begin with. Wouldn’t it make more sense to show us dictionary definitions when clicking on a word?

1 Like

It appears that there has been a change in that regard. For one the textfield is now adapting to the amount of space required by all the definitions. Furthermore, definitions stored under different entries are now seperated via semicolon when shown in a single field. As I use commata when listing several possible definitions in one entry field, this works pretty well for me. :slight_smile:

The AI often includes additional words next to the unknown word in the definition, making me go in to fix it so I learn the word correctly when I see it in a different context.

This is my experience too.

A specific example from today. A sentence read (my translation): “[…], or used ineffectively.” Two words: ‘used’ and ‘ineffectively’.

The generated translation for the word ‘used’ was ‘used ineffectively’ - clearly wrong, the word did not mean that, there was a separate word meaning ‘ineffectively’.

It does this to me like 5% of the time, basically every session. I can’t trust it like this - I only knew the above example was wrong because I understood the basic construction of the word ‘used’ in a different tense.

And 90% of the time it’s basically the same as the top community choices, but with the frustration of waiting (and waiting) while the wheel spins. Honestly it does make the experience of using Lingq more frustrating for me, and less enjoyable.

I suspect the experience of enjoyment from the generated translations may be quite different depending on the source language. Which may explain the large differences between people loving it and wanting it on, and disliking it and wanting the option.

The ideal solution seems to be give us the option to turn it off, with a way to trigger it manually - treat it just like the other dictionary / translation options already present, eg next to ‘Context Reverso’ another button that say ‘GPT’. That way, people who like it being on every word can use it that way, and people who prefer to use it only when they want have that option too. Everybody is happy that way.

3 Likes

Lucky you :slightly_frowning_face:
For me it is similar but with a zero added :roll_eyes:

Still no option to disable this? I don’t need this at all, and it’s just slowing me down unfortunately.

1 Like

The option to disable this feature was added quiet some time ago. In the reader settings disable contextual meanings.

3 Likes