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How to use Live Translation with your AirPods and iPhone

In this step-by-step tutorial, we show you how to use real-time translation with your AirPods and iPhone to converse with someone in a foreign country.

Imagine this: you’re going on vacation to France and want a reliable translation tool that lets you talk with locals in French, even when offline.

If you have a newer pair of AirPods, you can make things easier: all you have to do is speak in English (other languages are also supported) while wearing your AirPods, and your iPhone will translate it into French and also play it through the speakers. And when the French person speaks, your iPhone will translate it to English, and you’ll hear it automatically in your ears.

After activating Live Translation, you can talk as long as you don’t end the session.

Supported AirPods

The following AirPods models running firmware version 8A356 or later support Live Translation:

AirPods Pro 3
AirPods Pro 2
AirPods 4 with ANC
AirPods Max 2

Other requirements

Aside from having a compatible AirPods, you also need to ensure the following:

Have an iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max, or later running the latest version of iOS 26 or iOS 27.
Ensure Apple Intelligence is set up on your iPhone. iPhone 15, 15 Plus, and older models don’t support Apple Intelligence.
Make sure you have not deleted the Apple Translate app from your iPhone.

Supported languages

As of writing this tutorial, Apple Intelligence Live Translation with AirPods works with these languages:

Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified) (But this translation feature is not available in mainland China)
Chinese (Mandarin, Traditional)
English (United Kingdom and United States)
French (France)
German (Germany)
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Portuguese (Brazil)
Spanish (Spain)

For this tutorial, I will use English-to-French translation and vice versa. You can also use a different pair of languages, such as German and French.

Set up AirPods Live Translation

You only need to set it up once; you don’t need to download the same language files before each translation session.

1) Connect your AirPods to your iPhone.

2) Open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap your AirPods name at the top.

3) Tap Live Translation (Beta).

4) You’ll now see a list of supported languages. Tap the arrow button to download the language you speak (e.g., English) and the language the other person will speak (e.g., French).

You can also download the language directly from the iPhone Translate app, as mentioned later below.

Use Live Translation with AirPods

Once you have downloaded two languages, you can get right to using it by following these steps. Live translation also works offline, making it helpful even for times when you don’t have Wi-Fi or a cellular connection.

1) Connect your AirPods to your iPhone and wear them in your ears.

2) Start Live Translation using one of these methods:

Open the Translate app on your iPhone, go to the Live tab, make sure the right languages are selected here, and tap Start Translation. I prefer this method.

Press and hold the stem of the AirPods 4, Pro 2, or Pro 3 with both hands. On AirPods Max, press and hold the listening mode button (i.e., the button other than the circular Digital Crown). Even if you use this method, I recommend tapping the Dynamic Island to display the Live Translation interface in full screen. Or manually go to the Live Translation screen in the iOS Translate app.

Say “Siri, start Live Translation,” then go to the Live section of the Translate app.

3) Now, speak what you want to say. Your AirPods will pick up your speech, and Apple Intelligence on your iPhone will translate it to another language and show it on the Live Translation screen in the iOS Translate app. Hold your phone to the other person so they can read the translated words. You can also tap the play button, and your iPhone will speak the translation in the foreign language so the person can hear it.

Note: If the other person also has a supported iPhone and AirPods, they can start Live Translation on their end, and then they can listen to your response in their ears; you won’t have to tap the play button on your iPhone for your phone speaker to speak the translation.

4) When the other person speaks, your iPhone will automatically translate it back to your language, and you’ll hear it in your ears through the AirPods.

Note: If there is background noise or your iPhone is too far from the speaker, you may hear a message in your ears that says, “There is some background noise. Try bringing your iPhone closer to the person you are speaking to.”

5) Now, when it’s your turn to speak again, just speak and the whole live translation cycle continues. The conversation will stay active as long as you don’t tap the X close button on the Live Translation screen in your iPhone Translate app.

Important: The Translate app keeps a history of other translations, but not for Live Translations. So, make sure you tap the X close button only when you’re sure you no longer need to see the translations for reference. You can also just take screenshots of this screen and check it later.

A few more things to know about

Choose which text appears on the Live Translation screen

You can choose to show both what you speak (i.e., your words in English) and the translation (i.e., your words in French) by tapping the small pill-shaped “Translating” button, as shown in the screenshot below.

You can choose to show only the other person’s language to ensure less confusion when you’re holding your iPhone to them.
You can switch to dual language view if you need to see your words to ensure the Translate app is correctly capturing what you said.

Change the translation languages

Open the Apple Translate app on your iPhone, go to the Live tab, and set the “Their Language” and “Your Language” appropriately.

Download languages directly from the Translate app

Go to the iPhone Translate app, tap Live, tap “Their Language” or “Your Language,” and then tap the new language to download it. If the language is already downloaded, tapping it selects it immediately.

Delete a downloaded language

Downloaded language files can be huge, coming in around 1 GB. Go to iPhone AirPods Settings > Live Translation (Beta) and swipe left on a downloaded language to delete it.