SAN JOSE: Apple plans to roll out its Live Translation feature to users in the European Union "next month," the US tech giant said on Tuesday (Nov 4), announcing it had brought the AirPods feature in line with European digital rules.
Allowing iPhone and AirPods users to get live in-ear translations of a foreign language being spoken to them, the feature was announced in June and launched in the United States in September, but was delayed for users in the European Union.
Live Translation is now available for testing for software developers, and a public Beta version will follow soon, Apple said, blaming the delay of several months on the time needed to implement the feature in a way that complies with EU data protection rules.
Sentences from the person talking to you are immediately translated over your earbuds. If both people are wearing AirPods, then they can have a conversation in their own language.
It's also possible for one user to wear the AirPods while the person they are talking to speaks into the connected iPhone and the translations are displayed written out on the phone screen.
To do this, the software has to have simultaneous access to the speakers and microphone of both the iPhone and the earphones. The Live Translation feature also works in the Messages and FaceTime apps, as well as on regular phone calls.
It is currently limited to the following languages: English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional Mandarin), Japanese and Korean.
To use it, you'll need a newer pair of AirPods Pro: AirPods Pro 3, AirPods Pro 2, or AirPods 4 with ANC, as well as an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone running the latest software. – dpa
