VOICE & CONVERSATIONS
Translate conversations with your iPhone microphone
Read live speech in your language, then revisit a locally saved transcript and translation.
Microphone translation turns nearby speech into an original transcript and translated text. It is a separate mode from system-audio translation: you use the microphone for conversations and nearby speakers, and a system broadcast for available audio from other apps.
Start microphone translation
- Open the Microphone tab in Live Translate.
- Choose the spoken language and the translation language.
- Prepare the required Apple-managed language models.
- Allow microphone access when prompted, then start listening.
- Speak clearly or place the device where it can hear the speaker. Read the original text and translation as they appear.
Read captions your way
You can view the original speech and translation together, or focus on one of them. Fullscreen captions work in portrait and landscape when you want larger text.
Stop to save a session
When you stop microphone translation, the original text, translations, languages, and session dates are saved in local history. Pausing and resuming belong to the same session. An empty session does not create a history record.
Search and export your history
Open history to review previous microphone sessions. Search the original text, translations, language, or date. From a session’s detail view, export the text as a UTF-8 text file or a PDF using the system export window. You can delete individual records or select several records to delete.
Your audio is not saved
The app processes microphone speech on the device and saves the resulting text locally when you stop. It does not save the audio recording or upload transcripts to the developer’s servers. If you export or share a file, that action sends it to the destination you choose.
Improve recognition quality
Choose the correct spoken language, reduce background noise, and keep the microphone reasonably close to the speaker. Multiple people speaking at once can reduce accuracy. Translation may be incomplete or incorrect; verify important details with the speaker.
Microphone mode follows the selected spoken and translation languages. It is not an automatic two-way interpreter that detects and switches between speakers’ languages.