Guide

No subtitles in your language on iPhone? What to try, in order

Start with the video's own subtitles, and on YouTube try Auto-translate. If there is no subtitle track at all — most livestreams, and many clips — iOS cannot translate the speech for you: Live Captions transcribes without translating, Live Translation is for calls, and iOS 27's generated subtitles are English only. What covers the rest is an app that listens to the audio your iPhone is playing and floats a translation on top. Hono Translate does that in any app, on the device.

Which option fits your case

Your situationWhat works
The video has subtitles in your languageTurn them on with the CC button
A YouTube video with captions in another languageYouTube's Auto-translate
English speech, no subtitles, iOS 27 on iPhone 15 Pro or laterGenerated subtitles, in apps that support them
Speech in another language and no subtitlesAn app that translates the audio
A livestream on TikTok, Instagram, Twitch or WeverseAn app that translates the audio

1. Check the video's own subtitles

It sounds obvious, but it is the only option that costs nothing and loses nothing. Look for a CC or subtitles control in the player. Streaming services often carry several languages, and some platforms add captions to a live broadcast when the streamer turns them on.

On YouTube, a video with a caption track — including one YouTube generated automatically — can usually be translated from the player: tap CC or the settings icon, open Captions, choose Auto-translate, then your language. The condition is the track. If the video has none, which is common for livestreams and short clips, there is nothing for Auto-translate to work from.

2. Safari's Translate button will not help

Safari can translate a web page, and people reasonably try it on a video page. It translates the text on the page — the title, the description, the comments — and never the speech in the video.

3. What iOS itself can do

Three built-in features sound like the answer. Each covers a different part of the problem, and none of them covers speech in a language you do not read, in the app you are watching.

FeatureWhat it does for a video
Live CaptionsWrites the speech down in the language it was spoken in; no translation
Live TranslationTranslates Phone, FaceTime and Messages conversations, not video
Generated subtitles (iOS 27)English speech only, on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 and later, in supported apps; translates only a video that already has English subtitles

So if the speech is English and you have a recent iPhone, iOS 27 may already be enough. If it is Japanese, Korean, Spanish or anything else, and nobody added subtitles, iOS has no way to turn it into a language you read.

4. Translate the audio itself

When there is no track to turn on or translate, the only thing left is the sound. An app can be given the audio your iPhone is playing, recognise the speech, translate it and show the result in a small window that stays above other apps. That is what Hono Translate does:

  1. Start the video or stream and leave it playing.
  2. Open Hono Translate and choose the language being spoken and the language you read.
  3. Tap Start translating sound, confirm on the iOS sheet, then tap the empty space below the sheet.
  4. The subtitle window floats up on its own and the iPhone returns to the Home Screen. Go back to what you were watching.

Because it reads the audio rather than the platform, the setup is the same in YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, Weverse, Bilibili, Douyin or a video playing in Safari. Recognition and translation both run on the iPhone: there is no account, nothing is uploaded, and once a language pair has been downloaded it works offline. The longer explanation, including why the sheet mentions screen sharing, is in how to translate any video you watch on iPhone; for live broadcasts, see translating a livestream.

What translating the audio cannot do

  • Sound from another device. It translates what this iPhone is playing, not a TV or a laptop in the room.
  • iOS screen recording at the same time. iOS allows one broadcast session, and the app is using it. To keep a clip with the subtitles, use the app's own recording instead.
  • Perfect accuracy. Loud music, several people talking at once and very fast speech all make recognition worse, as they would for a person.
  • Older iPhones. It needs iOS 26 or later.

Questions

Why doesn't YouTube offer Auto-translate on this video?

Auto-translate translates a caption track, so it only appears when the video has one. Many livestreams and short clips have no captions at all, and then the option is simply not there.

Can iOS 27 translate a Japanese or Korean video into English?

Not from the speech. Apple generates subtitles from English speech only, and its translated subtitles start from an English track that already exists. Speech in another language with no subtitles is outside what it covers.

Does it work on a livestream as well as a recording?

Yes. The app reads the audio as it plays, so it makes no difference whether it is being broadcast now or was recorded years ago.

Is it free?

Free to download and free to try, with no card and no account. Unlimited use is a monthly or yearly subscription or a one-time lifetime unlock, priced in the App Store.

Can an iPhone app hear the sound another app is playing? Do I need a second phone?

Yes, and one iPhone is enough. Through screen sharing — the iOS sheet you confirm when you start — iOS hands the sound that is playing to the app you pick. Hono Translate takes that audio from iOS, not from the microphone, so headphones are fine, and its subtitles float in a Picture-in-Picture window over TikTok, YouTube or any other app.

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