How to translate text in other iPhone apps without copying it

Use screen translation when you can see the words

A game button, a scanned document and a social post may all contain words you cannot select. Screen mode recognises the visible text rather than asking the source app to provide a selectable text layer. You can stay in that app and use the floating translation as a reading aid.

Apple Live Text can translate text in a screenshot, and Google Translate can import the image. For a single button, either workflow is practical. For several menus or quest screens in a row, start Screen once in Hono Translate and read each translation in the floating window as you move through the game. Pause on each screen and try your own game first, especially with small or vertical text.

Set it up on your iPhone

Choose Screen at the bottom of Hono Translate and set the target language. If the app asks for a language download, complete it first. Start screen translation, confirm the iOS sharing panel and tap the empty area below it. Wait for the floating window before opening the page you want to read.

Show one readable section at a time. After scrolling or changing pages, pause and wait for the translation to update. Move the floating window if it blocks the text you need. To finish, return to Hono Translate and tap Stop.

What you will see in the floating window

The translation appears in a separate Picture in Picture window. This is not an in-place rewrite: buttons, images, PDF layout and comic bubbles in the original app are unchanged. You still tap the original app to navigate. Screen mode shows translated visible text; use Sound when the meaning comes from speech rather than writing.

Make the text easier to recognise

Enlarge small text, pause scrolling and avoid asking it to read several columns at once. Blurry scans, decorative fonts, vertical Japanese, overlapping bubbles and fast animations can produce omissions or the wrong reading order. A normal web paragraph and a complex manga page are different tests; try your actual material before paying.

Privacy and compatibility

Screen sharing gives the app access to the visible screen while it is active. Stop sharing before opening unrelated private pages. Text recognition and translation run on your iPhone after the required models are available; screen images are not uploaded for translation. Some protected screens cannot be captured. The app requires iOS 26 or later, and Sound and Screen do not operate at the same time.

Questions

Does this replace Japanese text with Chinese inside the app?

No. You read the translation in the floating window; the original screen is not rewritten.

Can it translate an entire document in one pass?

It translates the visible screen, not a whole file. Move through the document a section at a time.

What if the video has no written subtitles?

Use Sound to translate its spoken audio. Screen needs visible words to read.

Choose your next step

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