Use Live Translation with your AirPods

Bridge language barriers in person—while traveling or navigating in a foreign country—with AirPods.

AirPods now help you understand what someone is saying in your preferred language.1 If you are speaking with someone who doesn’t have their own AirPods with Live Translation, just speak naturally and then use the Translate app on iPhone to show your words in their language or to play back the translated audio of what you said in their language.

You can use Live Translation2 if you have:

Download the languages you want to use for Live Translation

To use Live Translation, you need to download the language the other person is speaking and the language you’d like to translate it to. Once the language models are downloaded, all processing takes place on your iPhone where all of your conversation data remains private.

  1. Put your AirPods in your ears and connect them to your iPhone.

  2. Go to the Settings app on your iPhone, then tap the name of your AirPods.

  3. Under Translation, tap Languages, then select the languages that you want to download.

    Downloaded languages for Live Translate in AirPods Settings on iPhone.

Set up a Live Translation conversation

  1. Put your AirPods in your ears and connect them to your iPhone.

  2. Make sure that Apple Intelligence is turned on.

  3. Go to the Translate app on your iPhone, then tap Live.

  4. Select the language that the other person is speaking and the language that you want your AirPods to translate it to.

    Live Translation in the Translate app on iPhone.

Use Live Translation

There are a number of ways you can start Live Translation:

  • Go to the Translate app on your iPhone, tap Live, then tap Start Translation.

  • Use the Action button on your iPhone set to the Translate app to automatically start Live Translation when you're wearing your AirPods.

  • Press and hold the stem on both AirPods at the same time.

  • Say something like, "Siri, start Live Translation.”

  • Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to open Control Center, then tap Translate.

To use Live Translation:

  1. Listen to the other person speak. Your AirPods automatically translate what the person said to your preferred language. If you’re in a noisy environment, there is the added ability to use your iPhone's microphones in addition to those on AirPods to enhance the translation performance. To do this, you can simply try moving your iPhone closer to the other person speaking.

  2. Speak your response.

  3. Use the Live tab in the Translate app on your iPhone to show a transcript to the person you’re speaking with, or press the Play button to play a translation on your iPhone speaker.

  4. If the person you’re speaking with has supported AirPods and has set up and started Live Translation, they can use their AirPods to listen to your response.

To stop Live Translation, tap the X button.

  1. Live Translation with AirPods works on AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation and AirPods Pro 2 and later with the latest firmware when paired with an Apple Intelligence–enabled iPhone running iOS 26 and later. Available in beta with support for these languages: English (UK, US), French (France), German (Germany), Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Spain). Later this year, Live Translation on AirPods will add language support for Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified), Chinese (Mandarin, Traditional), Japanese, Korean, and Italian. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages. Live Translation with AirPods is not available for EU residents whose device is in the EU and whose Apple Account Country or Region is also in the EU. Apple Intelligence users based in other regions can continue to use Live Translation with AirPods anywhere they travel.

  2. Live Translation uses generative models, and outputs may be inaccurate, unexpected, or offensive. Check important information for accuracy.

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