Learn how to use real-time on-device translation in the Messages app on iOS 26 to automatically translate texts from a foreign language into English on your iPhone or iPad.
Translating text has been available on the iPhone for a few years now, thanks to the dedicated Translate app as well as the translate feature built into iOS at the system level.
Apple Intelligence in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, and macOS Tahoe 26 adds to it and now allows you to translate text messages on the fly as soon as they arrive. This ensures you can conveniently converse with colleagues, friends, and family who speak a different language, such as French, Spanish, Chinese, etc.
Though you need an internet connection to download languages initially, translation in the Messages app works offline thanks to on-device processing. Hence, it works even for SMS texts when your iPhone isn’t connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data.
Supported languages
As of September 2025, Live Translation in the iOS 26 Messages app supports the following languages:
- English (U.S. and UK)
- Chinese (simplified)
- French (France)
- German
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Portuguese (Brazil)
- Spanish (Spain)
Note:
- Live Translation will translate messages for you even if the sender’s device is not updated to OS 26. It also translates SMS sent by an iPhone or Android user. However, the sender will see automatic translations only if their Apple device is also updated to OS 26 (or you can manually translate your message from your end and send the translated version).
- Make sure Apple Intelligence is enabled on your device.
Translate messages automatically in real-time on iPhone or iPad
It involves just three steps: downloading the language files, turning on auto-translate, and then using auto-translate.
Step 1: Download language files
Since translation happens offline, you need to save the language files on your iPhone or iPad. Each language can take anywhere between 300 MB and a GB of local space. Secondly, connect to Wi-Fi, as language files may not download over 5G or 4G cellular data.
1) Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, tap Apps from the bottom, and then select Translate from the list of applications.
2) Tap Languages or Downloaded Languages.
3) Go through the list of available languages and tap the download arrow button next to your native language, like English. Then, tap the download button next to the language you want to save for offline translation, such as French. I recommend staying on this screen until the languages have finished downloading and appear in the “Available Offline” section at the top.
One important thing to note is that even though you’ll see multiple languages here, translation in Messages is currently available in English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Step 2: Turn on automatic translation
Once the language files are saved offline, it’s time to turn on auto-translate for Messages.
1) Open the Messages app on your iPhone or iPad, go inside an existing iMessage or SMS chat, and tap the person’s name or contact info from the top.
2) Make sure you’re in the Info tab, and turn on the switch for Automatically Translate, which will take you to the ‘Choose Language’ pane.
3) Then, tap the language you want to translate to (such as French). Since you already downloaded the language in Step 1, this language won’t show the download icon next to it, but you may see a pop-up nonetheless. Tap Download there. Note: You can also download languages from here; however, it repeatedly fails for me; your mileage may vary.
Next, check that the “Translate From” section shows the correct language. Then ensure the language you read and understand, such as English (US), is active in the “Translate To” field. You can also tap it and select an alternative language if you prefer. Once everything looks fine here, tap the back button (<) at the top left to return to your conversation screen.
Step 3: Translate texts in a foreign language
Upon returning to the conversation screen, you’ll now see a small pill-shaped “Translating Language” button. This conveys that the message translation feature is active on the device.
From now on, when you receive new texts in the chosen foreign language, your device will automatically translate them and display them in the chat bubbles. Existing texts are not translated.
You can tap the pill-shaped “Translating” button and choose to show both the original and translated texts or just the translated version.
You can also stop translating. But if you do that and then change your mind, you’ll have to turn this feature back on by re-enabling the Automatically Translate switch.
How to translate into multiple languages
The Messages app can only translate texts from one of the languages at any given time, even though you can keep multiple languages downloaded on the device. So, for instance, if I have set my iPhone to translate Italian messages to English, but then I receive a text in French, the app will not translate it.
To translate to French, for example, I will have to download the French language (Step 1) and then switch the “Translate From” language in the Messages app (Step 2). Going forward, new messages in French will convert to English (but Italian messages won’t).
If you often converse in multiple foreign languages, keep them all downloaded on your device. And then you can switch between them quickly.
What about old messages?
Past messages in foreign languages aren’t translated. Copy the text and paste it into Apple’s Translate app to see the conversion.
iOS 26 expands translation capabilities to certain apps. In the Music app, for example, you can translate lyrics into another language. And Live Translation is also available in the Phone and FaceTime apps for improved cross-border communication.
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