Guide
Translated video subtitles in Arabic, Vietnamese, Spanish and more on iPhone
Hono Translate listens to video in 16 languages and writes subtitles in about 20, all on the iPhone. A list of languages is the easy part. What decides whether subtitles are readable is how each language is handled: Arabic written right to left under an English line, Thai with no spaces between words, Vietnamese and Turkish speech recognised without a server. This guide goes through what the app does for the languages its users read most.
What people watch, and in which language
| Video in | Subtitles in | Typically |
|---|---|---|
| English | Arabic | Series, films, short videos, livestreams, online classes |
| Turkish | Arabic | Turkish drama series |
| Chinese | Vietnamese | Chinese drama series |
| English | Spanish, Portuguese or French | Series, films, short videos, livestreams |
| English | Russian or Turkish | Series, films, short videos |
| Japanese or Korean | Chinese, English, Korean or Japanese | Anime, idol and VTuber livestreams, variety shows |
| Thai | Chinese or English | Series and videos |
These are among the pairs Hono Translate users choose most often. The language menu is sorted the same way — by how many people actually use each language, not alphabetically — so the common choices are at the top on every iPhone, whatever language it is set to.
Arabic
Arabic is one of the most-used subtitle languages in the app, mostly under English videos and Turkish series.
- Each line runs in its own direction. In bilingual mode the Arabic subtitle is right-aligned while the English or Turkish line above it stays left-aligned, whatever language the iPhone itself is set to. Neither line is pushed to the wrong side because of the other.
- The app is in Arabic. Menus, setup and help are translated, and this website has a full right-to-left Arabic version.
- Subtitles start straight away. The first time you pick a pair, iOS downloads Apple's translation model for it. While that runs, an open-source translation model on the iPhone fills in, so English or Turkish video gets Arabic subtitles without waiting for the download to finish.
Vietnamese
- Chinese drama with Vietnamese subtitles. Mandarin speech is recognised and translated into Vietnamese as it plays, in any app — including dramas that have no Vietnamese subtitles yet.
- Vietnamese video, too. Vietnamese speech is recognised on the iPhone with Apple's on-device dictation model and can be translated into English, Chinese or another language.
- Lines break where the speaker pauses. The dictation model writes no punctuation, so the app ends a subtitle line at each pause instead of letting a whole paragraph run together.
- The app and this website are in Vietnamese.
Thai
- Thai is written without spaces between words, so subtitle lines are measured by character, the way Chinese and Japanese are, rather than by word. That keeps Thai lines from growing into one unbroken block.
- Thai video and Thai subtitles both work. Thai speech is recognised with Apple's on-device dictation model, and Thai is also a subtitle language.
- The app and this website are in Thai.
Turkish
- Turkish series can be followed in another language. Turkish speech is recognised on the iPhone and translated into Arabic, English or another subtitle language.
- Turkish subtitles are available for English, Japanese, Korean and other videos.
- The interface respects Turkish letters. Headings are not forced into capitals in Turkish, where the dotted and dotless i are easy to get wrong.
Spanish, Portuguese and French
Most people who read Spanish, Portuguese or French subtitles in the app are watching English video: series and films, short videos and livestreams. All three also work the other way, as video languages, and the app and this website are available in each of them.
Russian and Indonesian
Russian and Indonesian speech is recognised on the iPhone with Apple's on-device dictation model, with subtitle lines broken at the speaker's pauses, and both are subtitle languages as well. The app and this website are in Russian and Indonesian.
Chinese, Japanese and Korean
Japanese and Korean video with Chinese subtitles is the most common way the app is used, from anime to idol livestreams. Chinese is available in Simplified and Traditional script, and Cantonese has its own entry for Hong Kong dramas.
Watching raw Japanese and Korean streams with subtitles
Hong Kong dramas and Cantonese video
The full lists
| Languages | |
|---|---|
| Video language (what is spoken) | English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin), Cantonese, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Hindi, Russian, Turkish, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese |
| Subtitle language (what you read) | Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese |
| App and website | English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Thai, Vietnamese, Russian, Turkish, Indonesian, Arabic |
The subtitle languages are the ones Apple's on-device translator supports, read from iOS when the app runs, so the list can grow with an iOS update. Speech recognition and translation both run on the iPhone: the audio and the subtitles are never uploaded, and once a language pair has been downloaded it works offline.
Questions
Can I see the original line and the translation together?
Yes. The subtitle window can show the translation only, both lines, or the original only, and you can drag it taller to keep more lines on screen.
Do I need an internet connection?
Only the first time you use a language pair, to download its models. After that the subtitles appear with no connection at all.
Which apps does it work over?
Any app that plays sound on your iPhone: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Safari and other apps, including online class and meeting apps while your camera is off.
My language is not in the list. Can I ask for it?
Yes. At the bottom of each language menu there is a place to tell us which language you want. Requests are read and counted.
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 the setup, see how to translate any video you watch on iPhone.
Guides for specific apps
- How to translate a YouTube video or live stream on iPhone, even with no captions (free to try)
- How to translate a TikTok LIVE on iPhone in real time (one phone, free to try)
- How to translate an Instagram Live on iPhone in real time
- How to get live translated captions on a Twitch stream on iPhone
- How to get translated subtitles on a Weverse live on iPhone (one phone, with or without membership)