Real-time translator for travel: hotel, taxi, pharmacy

How it works on the road

With translation switched on, everything the microphone hears clearly — and anything typed into “Ask AI or paste context…” — is translated from the From language into the To language and appears as two bubbles: what was said, and its translation. The picker has hundreds of languages and a search field, and From can be left on Auto Detect, which helps when you are not sure what the person in front of you speaks.

Two limits shape everything below. It translates one way at a time, so replying means changing the languages. And on iPhone and iPad it runs in the cloud, so it needs a connection; the only offline translation is a local session on an Apple silicon Mac, which is useful on a train with a laptop open and no use at all in a taxi.

Before you leave home

A few things are far easier to sort out at home than in an arrivals hall.

• Subscribe before the trip. The app is free to download, but there is no free trial: a subscription (9.99 USD a month, with 2,000 credits) is needed before the first session.
• Plan for data — roaming, a local SIM or eSIM, or the hotel's Wi-Fi. Without a connection, a translation session on the phone cannot run.
• Run one test session at home, so you know where Translate is and what the bubbles look like.
• Leave From on Auto Detect and To on your own language. Translation stays on between sessions until you switch it off, so the phone is ready as soon as you tap Start.
• Pack a charger or a battery pack. The screen has to stay on for the whole conversation.

Setting it up, and replying

The Translate button is what switches translation on; choosing the Translation template does not do it by itself.

1. Tap Translate, the globe button, and in the Translation sheet turn on “Translate chat and live session”.
2. Set From to Auto Detect, or to the local language, and To to your own.
3. Tap Start (on iPad and Mac, Start Session) and hold the phone towards the person speaking. Keep the app open and the screen on: the session ends if the app goes to the background or the screen locks.
4. To reply, open Translate and set To to their language — with From on Auto Detect, that is the only change. Otherwise, exchange From and To.
5. Set To back to your language when it is their turn again, and tap End when the conversation is over.

Hotel, taxi, pharmacy, restaurant

Each place has its own small trick.

• Hotel reception: turn the screen across the desk so the receptionist can read your side. Check-out times, breakfast, luggage and directions are the short exchanges live translation handles well.
• Taxi: do not rely on a translated address. Show the driver the address as it is written locally — in the booking confirmation or on a map — and use the session for everything around it: the route, the fare, where exactly to stop. Agree the fare before you set off.
• Pharmacy: describe the symptoms in short sentences, and show the packaging of the medicine you use at home, because brand names change between countries. Ask the pharmacist to write the dose down. This is translation, not medical advice; for anything more than a minor complaint, see a doctor.
• Restaurant: for a serious allergy, a machine translation is no guarantee. Type the sentence when you sit down, with From set to your language and To to theirs, show the translation, and ask the staff to confirm they understood; a card written or checked by someone who speaks the language is safer still.
• People you meet: ask before you hold a phone towards someone. A short explanation, typed and translated, is usually enough.

Menus, signs and timetables

Printed words are easier to photograph than to say. With translation on, a question you ask is translated rather than answered, so switch translation off in Translate first, then tap Attach, choose Camera, and ask the assistant what the menu, sign or timetable says. It reads the image, including its text. Switch translation back on before the next conversation, because the setting carries over to the next session.

The guide on asking AI about a screenshot or a photo goes further, for forms, tickets and anything else written down.

Noise, numbers and double-checking

Stations, markets and streets are loud. Hold the phone closer to the person speaking than to the traffic, keep it out of the wind, and let one person speak at a time. If a translation comes out garbled, ask them to say it again rather than guessing.

Numbers deserve a second look everywhere: prices, times, platforms, dates. A figure said quickly can be misheard before it is translated at all. Ask people to write the number down or show it on a screen, and say back what you understood before you pay, board or walk away.

End each session when the conversation is over rather than leaving it listening in your hand; credits are spent on the audio a session uses.

When an app is not enough, and who is listening

For a police report, an accident, a dispute over a rental or anything else with legal consequences, ask whether an interpreter is available; a translation you cannot check is the wrong basis for a statement or a signature. For a medical problem beyond a minor one, the guide on translating at a doctor's appointment covers what the app is and is not for.

During a cloud session the audio goes from your phone straight to OpenAI's Realtime API. The session is stored on your device, and Arte Soft's servers never receive the audio, the transcripts or the translations. Tell people an AI is translating; it also explains why you are holding a phone towards them.