Guide
How to get translated subtitles on a Weverse live on iPhone
To translate a Weverse live on iPhone, use an app on the same iPhone that listens to the audio the Weverse app is playing: Hono Translate floats a translation over the live, on the device, with or without Digital Membership and without touching your Weverse account — no second phone, and free to try. Weverse's own auto-generated subtitles are a membership benefit that only covers lives held in Korean; for a live in Japanese, English or Chinese, neither Weverse nor iOS translates what is being said.
Which option fits your case
| Your situation | What works |
|---|---|
| A live in Korean, and you have Digital Membership | Weverse's auto-generated subtitles |
| A replay that has subtitles added | The subtitle menu in the Weverse player |
| A live in Korean, without membership | An app that translates the audio |
| A live in Japanese, English or Chinese | An app that translates the audio |
| You have one iPhone and no second device | An app that translates the audio, on the same iPhone |
| You want to write to the artist in their language | Weverse's Quick Translation, for your chat |
What Weverse itself offers
Weverse has two translation features, and they are easy to mix up.
Auto-generated subtitles translate the artist's speech during a live into a dozen or so languages. Weverse offers them as a Digital Membership benefit — a paid subscription for an artist's community — and only when the live is held in Korean. Members from Japan, Europe or China who speak their own language on a live are outside it, and so is anyone watching without membership.
Quick Translation, also a membership benefit, works the other way round: it translates the chat message you type into the artist's language. It does nothing to what the artist says.
Replays are different again. Subtitles on a recorded video depend on whether they were added to that video, so check the player's subtitle menu before anything else.
What iOS can do
Live Captions will write down what is being said, but in the language it was said in — Korean stays Korean. Live Translation covers Phone, FaceTime and Messages, not a video. The generated subtitles in iOS 27 are English only, and translate only a video that already has English subtitles. None of the three turns a Korean or Japanese live into a language you read. The full comparison of every option goes through each one.
Do you need a second phone?
A common suggestion is to play the live out loud and hold a second phone running Google Translate's transcribe mode next to the speaker. It works, but the translation sits on another screen, the room has to be quiet and headphones are out. On iPhone it is not necessary: iOS can hand the audio of the Weverse app straight to a subtitle app on the same phone, and the translation floats over the live.
Translate a Weverse live with Hono Translate
- Open the live in Weverse and let it play.
- Open Hono Translate and choose the language the artist is speaking — Korean, Japanese, English or Chinese — and the language you read.
- Tap Start translating sound, confirm on the iOS sheet, then tap the empty space below the sheet.
- The subtitle window floats up on its own and the iPhone returns to the Home Screen. Go back to Weverse.
The subtitle window floats over the live and new lines appear as the artist speaks. Headphones are fine: iOS hands the app the audio directly, so nothing depends on the speaker or the volume. Nothing is sent to Weverse either — the app never sees your account, and recognition and translation both run on the iPhone.
Two things worth knowing on the day:
- Pick the spoken language before you start. It is fixed for the whole session. If a member switches from Korean to Japanese for a long stretch, stop sharing, change it and start again. The language you read can be changed at any time.
- If the window disappears, another app has opened its own picture-in-picture — iOS allows one at a time. The audio keeps being shared; tap Open Subtitle Window to bring it back.
What it gets wrong
The translation is general-purpose, not trained on fandom. Idol names, group names and fan vocabulary can come out spelled differently from the way the fandom writes them, or translated literally. The meaning of a sentence usually survives; the exact romanisation of a name may not.
It also struggles where anyone would: several members talking over each other, loud music under the talk, a very fast back-and-forth. And it translates the voice only — not the chat, and not text on the screen.
Questions
Does Weverse have its own subtitles for lives?
Yes, auto-generated subtitles, as a Digital Membership benefit and only for lives held in Korean. Lives in other languages, and viewers without membership, do not get them.
Can I translate a Japanese Weverse live into English?
Yes. Set Japanese as the spoken language and English as the one you read. Weverse's own subtitles do not cover a live held in Japanese, so this is the case the app is most useful for.
Can I translate a Weverse live with only one iPhone?
Yes. Hono Translate runs on the same iPhone as Weverse and gets the audio from iOS directly, so there is no second device to hold up to the speaker, and headphones are fine.
Can I get subtitles on a Weverse live without membership?
Not from Weverse: its subtitles are a Digital Membership benefit. Hono Translate works with or without membership. It is free to download and free to try with no account; unlimited use is a subscription or a one-time unlock.
Why are there no subtitles on a Weverse live?
Weverse shows its auto-generated subtitles only to members, and only on lives held in Korean. A live in another language, or watched without membership, has none.
Will Weverse or the artist know I am translating?
No. iOS gives the audio your iPhone is playing to the app on your phone. Nothing is sent to Weverse, and nothing leaves the device.
Does it translate the live chat?
No. It translates what is being said. For the chat, Weverse's Quick Translation handles your own messages.
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.
For livestreams on other platforms, see how to translate any livestream on iPhone.