We tested Apple’s Live Translation feature: does it really work?
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Apple launched new ‘intelligence’ features in September 2025, with Live Translation being one of the biggest.
It claims the feature can ‘bridge language barriers’ and let AirPods users chat to someone who doesn’t speak the same language.
But how well does it work? We tested Live Translation against four bilingual speakers to find out how accurately it translates, and where it falls short.
- Apple's Live Translation was generally accurate in our tests, aside from some grammatical inconsistencies
- We found it can be distracting hearing two voices simultaneously: the person speaking and Siri translating
- It's great for travelling, although we wouldn't recommend it as a reason to upgrade your headphones or phone
What is Live Translation?
Live Translation is a new AirPods feature that translates what someone is saying directly through the earbuds.
For example, if you asked someone for directions on holiday, the AirPods would translate the speech in your preferred language. It’s done in real time, so you hear Siri’s voice translating what’s being said at the same time as the person speaking. As well as translating live in-ear, the translation also appears on Apple’s Translate app.
Starting the translation is easy: you either pinch both of the stems on the earbuds or use the app. But you can’t save conversations on the app, which is great for privacy, but not ideal if you need to refer back to them.
Do all AirPods offer Live Translation?
Live Translation is supported on the following AirPods:
You also need an iPhone 15 Pro or later (running at least iOS 26.0), with Apple Intelligence enabled.
What languages are supported?
Apple’s Live Translation currently supports nine languages:
- Chinese Mandarin (traditional and simplified)
- English (UK and US)
- French
- German
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Portuguese
- Spanish
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How good is Apple's Live Translation feature?
To put Live Translation to the test, we asked four bilingual speakers to chat about topics, such as their holidays, in their chosen language.
As well as judging how well the in-ear translation worked using the AirPods Pro 3, we also checked its accuracy via Apple’s Translate app.
Half of the listening tests were done with background noise, while the other half took place in a quiet meeting room.
Italian
Our Italian speaker spoke about her holidays in a quiet meeting room, and the translation was incredibly accurate. However, Live Translation did get muddled with names, such as British Airways, which it referred to as ‘Briti shareway’ – not so great if you’re asking for directions. Some sentences were grammatically wrong on both the app and in-ear translation, for example, ‘holidays little shorter’.
Although there wasn’t any background noise, we could still hear the Italian speaker, which made it difficult to focus on Siri’s in-ear translation.
Spanish
When our Spanish speaker told us about a rewards app, the grammar was way off because it translated the speech word for word. While we could understand the gist of it, the tone wasn’t right and it missed some Spanish prepositions, such as, ‘en’ (which means ‘in’, ‘on’ or ‘at’ in English).
When we performed the Spanish listening test with background noise, it was slower to translate. There was a delay between the speaker and in-ear translation, so it was harder to follow what was being said. There were also long pauses in the conversation, so it didn't feel natural.
German
The German translation test took place with background noise. It was accurate when our speaker told us about her birthday plans, except for a couple of occasions when Siri went rogue. For example, when they said: ‘I hope my sister can come next year, but this time she has to work.’, the AirPods translated it as: ‘This time I have to work her’. Most of the time, we could understand the gist of it, though.
We didn’t notice any major lagging between the German speaker and in-ear translation, so the speech was easier to follow and understand compared to Spanish.
French
Our French speaker chatted about her honeymoon in Europe, and the translation was excellent. There wasn’t any background noise during this test, but we did notice some small delays with the in-ear translation, especially with long or complex sentences. As a result, we ended up looking at the translation in the app, which was faster, to keep up with the conversation.
Ruby Gordon, senior scientific advisor at Which?, who led the Apple AirPods translation tests, said:
"The slight delay with the in-ear translation made it difficult to have a natural conversation with someone. It was also distracting hearing Siri translate at the same time as the person speaking, although noise cancelling kicks in to help you hear Siri better.
"We ended up focusing on the speaker’s body language to supplement the translation, as well as glancing at the translation on the app. Although when the speakers paused naturally or took a breath, the app mistook this for a new sentence and started a new text bubble, which made the written translation tricky to follow too."
Verdict: is Apple’s Live Translation worth it?
We found the translation was generally accurate across all of the languages we tested. A few words got lost in translation and there were some grammatical inconsistencies, but we could still understand what was meant.
It’s definitely worth using the feature if you’ve already got the AirPods and a compatible iPhone. However, we wouldn’t recommend upgrading specifically for it.
Instead, try free alternatives such as Google Translate, which is available on most devices and supports nearly 250 languages. It doesn’t translate what’s being said live in-ear like the AirPods do, but sometimes simpler solutions are the best.
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