Language barriers look set to fall in Apple’s forthcoming iOS 26 with its new Live Translation feature.
Unveiled during the company’s WWDC 2025 presentation on Monday, Live Translation will, as the name suggests, offer on-the-fly language translation across the Phone, Messages and FaceTime apps in iOS 26, after years of the company dabbling with translation as its own app or via Siri.
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It’s an AI-powered service, marking the company’s latest effort to provide greater value from its Apple Intelligence AI systems, after the relatively tepid rollout in the last year.
In Messages, texts will translate into the recipient’s preferred language as you type them out. Messages you receive back will also be instantly translated for you.
A glimpse of how Live Translation will work for texting in iOS 26.
While FaceTiming, Live Translation will offer captions in your preferred language as you converse with someone else speaking a different one, without interfering with the other person’s voice. That’s in contrast to its functionality during phone calls, which will feature a spoken translation alongside the voice of the person you’re speaking with.
There’s also no need to rehash any of those iMessage anxieties, as Live Translation will work even if the person you’re communicating with isn’t using an iPhone. For the time being, however, it’s unknown which and how many languages will be supported.
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