Choose the spoken and translation languages

Every recording has two languages: the source language (what people are speaking) and the target language (what you want to read).

Choose the languages

Mac: on the Live screen, the language row sits below the control bar. Choose the source language, then the arrow, then the target language. You can type a language name or code in the Search language box. Frequently used is at the top, followed by All languages.

iPhone and iPad: tap the language pill on Home, or go to Settings → Languages to change Spoken language and Translate to.

If you haven't chosen a target language on Mac, the app prompts Choose a target language before it lets you record.

The language list depends on the engine

• With the Default (Apple) engine, the language list depends on what your device supports.
• With the Cloud engine, the list is much larger, about a hundred languages.

See AI engines overview.

Auto-detect language

The Auto-detect option (or Language detection in Settings on Mac) lets the app guess the language being spoken, which helps when a speaker switches languages mid-conversation.

Apple translation language packs

With the Default translation engine, Apple translates on your device and needs a language pack for each language pair (downloaded once).

• Mac: go to Settings → Language models. The Translation pack item shows the status Installed, Download, Downloading…, or Not supported. Click Download and macOS downloads the pack. Download it before your meeting. If it isn't downloaded, you'll see Language pack not ready when you click record.
• iPhone and iPad: the translation pack downloads in the background through the system's interface. You can start recording right away: the original text appears first, and the translation fills in once the pack finishes downloading.

If Apple doesn't support your language pair, switch the Translation engine to a cloud model or a model installed on your Mac. See AI engines overview.