Apple, Live Translation: real-time translation on AirPods also arrives in Italy

Imagine ordering a coffee in Tokyo or discussing a contract in Berlin and understanding, and being understood, without touching the phone screen. From today all this is possible thanks to Live Translation, the function of real-time translation designed for AirPods Pro 3which finally arrives in Europe and Italy.

The news

The novelty was presented in September, during the Apple event dedicated to the iPhone 17 (and the new iPhone Air), but the debut in our country had been postponed. Reason? “Some critical issues related to the European Digital Markets Act”, as Apple itself explained.

Now, however, the issues have been resolved and the function is available, at least in beta version, for developers registered with the Apple Developer Program while the public beta will arrive next month. The feature leverages the Apple Intelligence ecosystem the artificial intelligence platform integrated into the new iPhones. It’s important to point out that the translation doesn’t happen in the earphones, but on the iPhone they’re connected to. The AirPods, thanks to the microphones and the H-series chip, capture the voice of the interlocutor.

The audio is then sent to the chip A18 dell’iPhonewhich processes the sentence and translates not the individual words, but the overall meaning, in real time. The result? The translation is played directly into your earphones, while the volume of the original voice is automatically lowered, allowing you to concentrate on the translated language without distractions.

Privacy

One of the strong points of the new feature concerns privacy. The entire translation process takes place on-device, i.e. on the user’s device, without going through external servers. The conversations, therefore, remain private. And you don’t even need an internet connection, just download the language packs once and Live Translation It also works offline, a boon for those who often travel abroad.

Only precaution: the optimal distance for a good translation is around 2-3 metres. If the environment is too noisy, the iPhone will warn you that the quality of the translation may be affected. Activating the feature is simple. Just go into the AirPods settings on the iPhone and select the Translation item (still in beta version). From there you download the packages of the desired languages.

How it works

There are three ways to start a translation session: by long-pressing both stems of the AirPods (customizable action); use the “Action button” on the iPhone to start the translation; open the Translate app, manually choosing the source and target languages. You can use Live Translation with an iPhone compatible with Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, iPhone 16 and 17 in all versions, including the Air model) and the pairing of AirPods Pro3, AirPods Pro2 and AirPods4. At launch, supported languages ​​include Italian, English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional).

But Apple has already anticipated that other languages ​​will arrive shortly. With Live Translation, therefore, Apple takes a concrete step towards what we could call “empathic technology”, capable not only of assisting us, but of breaking down linguistic barriers in real time.