Top 6 Best Standalone Translation Tools: Avoid the Internet

Exploring foreign countries is now more accessible with AI-powered translator apps, though we’re still a long way from the seamless universal translators seen in sci-fi movies. The silver lining is that you can still engage in meaningful conversations while traveling, even if you don’t have internet service.

Let’s dive into the top offline translator apps available today.

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Google Translate: Best Free App for Translations

What We Like

• Translates spoken words in real time.
• Lots of supported languages.
• Free with zero in-app purchases.
• Save frequent translations for easy recall.

What We Don’t Like

• Many translations don’t take context into consideration.
• Doesn’t work in China.

Google Translate needs no introduction. With dozens of language packs available for offline translations, it’s the best travel companion. There’s aconversation mode for live translations with another speaker and support for translating directly through your phone’s camera.

The app stores a history of your translations for easy retrieval and it recognizes both handwriting and text input. Outputted text can be spoken aloud to help you learn the language or presented to another person.

Download For:

iOS

Android

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Apple’s Translate: Best App for Apple Users

What We Like

• Simple, minimal design with no ads.
• Type, speak, or take a picture.

What We Don’t Like

• Only for iOS 14 and newer.
• Limited to around 15 languages.

Translate is Apple’s free built-in translation app for all devices on iOS 14. It supports three input methods, letting you translate via speech, text, or photos. Much like Google Translate, Apple’s translator lets two people speak in their own languages for live translations.

Recent translations are saved automatically and you can store specific results in a Favorites menu. Full-screen mode is useful if you’re showing translations to someone else.

There aren’t a ton of languages supported, but it includes several common ones, including Arabic, Dutch, English (UK and US), French, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Thai, and Vietnamese.

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Microsoft Translator: Best App for Group Translations

What We Like

• Live conversation translations with up to 100 people.
• Useful phrasebook for travelers, with verified translations and pronunciation guides.

What We Don’t Like

• Voice translations don’t work offline.
• Confusing user interface.

Microsoft’s offline translator works fine for one-off translations if you see a sign or menu you can’t understand. But where it excels is with conversations.

Split mode divides the app in two, letting you sit across from someone as both of you speak, which is great in the real world and for learning. Auto mode translates in real time so you can focus on the conversation instead of the app.

Shockingly, this free-to-use translator app can handle in-person conversations with up to 100 people across multiple languages. Text translations are available offline in over 70 languages.

Download For:

iOS

Android

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iTranslate: Best Paid Translator App for Frequent Travelers

What We Like

• Verb conjugations in different tenses.
• Share extensions help translate from any app.
• Translations in male or female voices.

What We Don’t Like

• Free version displays ads and does not support offline mode.
• Offline voice translation limited to few languages.
• Nag screen advertising full access.

iTranslate is a well-rounded translator app with support for 100+ languages and dialects. The only downside is that most of the app is not free. But, some of its unique features make it a worthy buy for frequent travelers.

You can translate text and website, and start voice-to-voice conversations in some languages. Image recognition and an AR Mode for Real-time Object Translation make the paid subscription worth considering. While simple text translations are free, offline mode is a paid feature that can translate between dozens of languages without any language-pair restrictions.

A bonus for Apple users is the widget that delivers daily phrases directly to your home screen.

Download For:

iOS

Android

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Naver Papago: Best App for Sensing Context in Asian Languages

What We Like

• Simple interface.
• Focus on Asian languages.
• Handwriting and website translation.
• Phrasebook widget for passive learning.

What We Don’t Like

• Limited languages.
• Not all languages use the smarter context sensitive translations.

Papago offers text, voice, and image translation in around a dozen languages. As a South Korean company, the app leans towards Asian languages like Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Arabic, and Indonesian. Other languages like English, Russian, Spanish, Italian, French, and German complete their range.

Papago’s neural machine translation tries to sense context when it comes up with the translated phrases. This differs from the more common word-for-word translations that can miss the meaning of a conversation. Papago has a robust offline mode to support real-time translations.

If you’re interested, this app provides a secondary focus on education. The myEdu section and Study Camera function are centered around studying a new language. It’s not a full-blownlanguage learning app , but it’s more like it than our other picks in this list.

Download For:

iOS

Android

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Speak & Translate: Best Freemium App With a Simple Interface

What We Like

• Sync translation history via iCloud.
• Male and female voice choice is available.

What We Don’t Like

• Only available for iOS.
• Free version excludes offline mode and other useful features.

Speak & Translate has an intuitive interface that uses Apple’s speech recognition technology. Available only on iPad and iPhone, iCloud integration means your translation history can be retrieved on any of your other Apple devices.

Offline mode can translate Mandarin Chinese and several other languages, but you’ll need to subscribe to access offline translations. Photo translations, unlimited translations, and no ads are also locked behind a paywall.

Still, the free version is very capable. With it, you can translate to over 50 languages with your voice and over 100 via text, even if you can’t identify the original language.

Speak & Translate is a freemium app. The free version displays ads and limits the number of translations you can receive per day.

Download For:

iOS

5 Best Translation Sites of 2024

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