Samoan English Translator is a free educational mobile app that enables you to translate Samoan to English and vice versa. Developed by Vocab Tutor, this app is meant to work offline and should be pretty handy when you’re on the go. However, compared to other translators, this one can be unreliable as not all words get correctly translated. It also doesn’t actually work offline and will tell you to connect to the internet when translating.

Not a lot of functions

Samoa—officially known as the Independent State of Samoa and not to be confused with the US territory, American Samoa—is a small country located in the Polynesian region of the Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand. Its official languages are Samoan and English but there are more speakers of Samoan than English in Samoa. Thus, it would be handy to have a translator right on your phone if you’re dealing with the language.

Samoan English Translator by Vocab Tutor is part of its language translator series of apps and is meant to make things easier for you. As soon as you launch the app, it will display a simple Home page that has two options: English to Samoan and Samoan to English. Choosing any of the two will bring you to a page containing two empty fields—the top one labeled “Enter Text” and the bottom labeled “Translated Text.” 

Further below are two buttons: “To Samoan/English” for processing the translation, and “Clear Text” for resetting the fields. However, this app disappoints in many areas. First, it doesn’t really work offline—you can still open the app while disconnected but translating will require an internet connection. There are also tons of ads playing on it. Lastly, the interface design is so cartoonish and bland at the same time that it doesn’t feel professional at all.

Could be better

All in all, while this app is free to use, it isn’t really all that helpful—especially if you’re on the go and have lost any form of internet connectivity. The translations are accurate enough if they’re simple phrases or words but sometimes, you’ll also encounter incorrect translations—and unlike Google Translate, those who know Samoan can’t contribute a better version. You’re better off trying other apps.