The best translation app for each job: conversations, calls, text and travel

The quick answer

Translating text and documents

DeepL is the one to beat for text you type or paste, and for documents. Its translations often read more naturally than Google's, it keeps a document's layout when it translates Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF files, and it now covers more than 100 languages. The free version has monthly limits; paid plans add more text, more files and larger files.

Google Translate covers far more languages, nearly 250, and it is free. Its website translates Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF files up to 10 MB. If your language is uncommon, Google is often the only good option.

Translating signs, menus and photos

Google Translate's camera lays the translation over the text as you point your phone at it, or translates a photo you already took. Download a language in advance and it works without a connection, which matters most when you are abroad. Apple's Translate app and DeepL's mobile app also translate from the camera.

Translating chat messages

Use the button built into the app you are already chatting in. WhatsApp has translated messages since September 2025: press and hold a message and tap Translate, and the translation happens on your phone. On an iPhone with Apple Intelligence, Messages can translate a conversation as you type. If you need to talk rather than type, see our guide to translating WhatsApp video calls.

Translating a conversation in person

Google Translate is the free default. Its conversation mode lets two people take turns speaking into one phone, and since 2026 it can speak the translation into any pair of headphones, on Android and iPhone.

Apple Translate and AirPods are the smoothest choice if you already own the hardware. Live Translation needs an iPhone 15 Pro or later with Apple Intelligence and recent AirPods (AirPods 4 with noise cancellation, AirPods Pro 2 or later, or AirPods Max 2). It covers about ten languages and runs on the iPhone itself. The other person reads a transcript, hears the iPhone speaker, or wears their own AirPods.

Translator earbuds and glasses, such as Timekettle's earbuds or Meta's Ray-Ban glasses, put the translation in your ear without taking out a phone. They cost from about $100 to several hundred dollars, and the person you are talking to usually reads or hears the reply through a phone or a second earbud.

Translating a phone call

Use your phone's own call translation, if it has one. All three speak the translation aloud, and only one of you needs the phone:

• Samsung Galaxy: Live Translate with Galaxy AI speaks the translation for both sides and shows it on screen, and you can mute the original voices so only the translation is heard. It works in the Samsung Phone app and, on supported models, in other apps including WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram and Signal. About 20 languages.
• iPhone: Live Translation in the Phone app speaks the translation for both sides, with a written transcript on screen, on an iPhone 15 Pro or later with Apple Intelligence. One-to-one calls only, in about ten languages, translated on the iPhone.
• Google Pixel: Pixel 10 and later translate Phone app calls on the device, between English and about ten other languages, and speak the translation in a voice that sounds like yours.

The catch is that each one works only on that maker's recent phones, mostly inside its own calling app, and in a fixed set of language pairs.

Translating a video call with family, a partner or a friend

This is the job we built VideoCallTranslator for. You create a room, send the link wherever you already talk (WhatsApp, a text message, email), and the other person taps it. The call runs in the browser on both ends, on a phone or a computer, so nobody installs anything.

Each of you speaks your own language and hears the other one translated a moment later, spoken aloud in the male or female voice they chose, with subtitles if you want them. Two volume controls let you keep the person's real voice underneath the translation, or turn it off. It covers 41 languages, in any pair, and we never record your calls.

Only the host pays, from prepaid minutes that never expire, with no subscription. The person you invite joins free and never needs an account. New accounts start with 30 free minutes, and packs start at $3 for 30 minutes.

If you'd rather use a mobile app

VivaLingua does the same job as an app for iPhone and Android. The host installs it, and the person they invite can still join from a link in a browser. Because it is an app, it also translates conversations in person, and its optional AI Voice speaks your translation in a voice that sounds like you. It covers 41 languages, the first 60 minutes are free, and packs start at $2.99 for 30 minutes.

What about FaceTime?

FaceTime's Live Translation shows translated captions, not spoken translation, and the original voices keep playing. FaceTime is for calls between Apple devices, so both of you need one, and captions need an iPhone 15 Pro or later (or another Apple device with Apple Intelligence). If you both have one and reading captions is enough, it's built in.

When a translated video call is the wrong tool

• One of you has a supported Samsung Galaxy phone and your languages are on its list. Live Translate works inside WhatsApp calls, so you may not need a separate call.
• More than two people need to be on the call, or your language is not among the 41.
• The call has to be end-to-end encrypted. No live translator can be, because it has to hear the call.

Skype Translator, which many people remember for this, went away with Skype in May 2025.

Translating a work meeting

Start with whatever your company already pays for, because the translation lives inside the meeting and everyone joins the usual way:

• Google Meet speaks a translation in the speaker's own tone, between English and Spanish, French, German, Portuguese or Italian, one pair per meeting. It needs a Business or Enterprise Workspace plan, or Google AI Pro or Ultra. Translated captions cover many more languages.
• Microsoft Teams has an Interpreter agent that speaks translations in nine languages, in meetings and Teams-to-Teams calls. It needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, and it does not work in the free version of Teams.
• Zoom offers translated captions on Business Plus and Enterprise plans, and spoken translation in a handful of languages as a paid add-on in its desktop app.
• DeepL Voice works across Teams, Zoom and Meet, which helps when you meet on more than one platform. It is sold on DeepL's business plans.

When to use a person, not an app

For a doctor's appointment, a court hearing, an immigration interview or a contract, use a professional interpreter. Machine translation is good enough for a conversation and not good enough for a decision with consequences. On-demand services such as LanguageLine and Jeenie connect you to an interpreter by phone or video in minutes, billed by the minute, and some courts require a certified interpreter regardless.