For years, high school and college students have been hopping online and directing their browsers to Google Translate to help out with Spanish or German homework. Now, with the purchase of a new app, Google is set to make translating easier and more convenient than ever before.

According to a report published by The Daily Mail, the name of the app is Word Lens, and it has become incredibly popular lately among users of both Android and iOS mobile devices. With Word Lens, users can point their phone cameras at a sign, a menu, or some other foreign language text and the app will automatically translate. Even niftier, the app portrays the text as it appears in the original image, so if you translate the text on a road side, the translated version will appear visually as it would if the sign as in English – same fonts, same colors, same text sizes, and more.

The app was developed by a company called Quest Visual, but while the firm did confirm that Word Lens had been acquired by Google, it would not comment on how much the transaction had been worth.

However, while certain details about the Word Lens acquisition are still a bit foggy, Google’s motivations for acquiring the app are at least pretty crystal clear. After all, Word Lens and its instant translation capabilities (without the need of a network connection, no less) are a perfect fit for the forthcoming Google Glass computer headset. A Word Lens/Google Glass combination would be hugely beneficial to foreign travelers, as it would allow them to essentially always have one eye capable of reading foreign text. With the Glass, users could simply read text on the fly and would not have to whip out their phones every time they wished to translate something.