How to Translate Audio in Real Time on Mac
Understanding audio in a language you do not speak fluently is a common challenge — whether you are joining an international meeting, watching foreign-language content, or communicating with someone who speaks a different language. Cloud translation services introduce delay and privacy concerns. Here is how to get real-time audio translation on your Mac, processed entirely on-device.
Step-by-Step Guide
Select your audio source
Determine where the audio you want to translate is coming from. Use "System Audio" for translating videos, remote meetings, or any audio playing on your Mac. Use "Microphone" for translating in-person conversations or live speech.
Set the source language
Open Glasscribe and set the transcription language to the language being spoken. If you are unsure of the exact language, start with your best guess — you can adjust if the recognition accuracy seems low.
Enable live translation and choose target language
Turn on the live translation feature and select the language you want to see the translation in. For example, set the source to Japanese and the target to English. The translation runs on-device using the Apple Translation framework — no internet required.
Start listening and reading translations
Begin the transcription session. You will see two lines for each utterance: the original transcription in the source language and the translation in your target language. The floating overlay makes it easy to follow along while watching video or participating in a meeting.
Review bilingual transcripts
After the session, your history contains both the original text and the translations. Export the session to save both versions. This is useful for language learning, creating bilingual meeting notes, or documenting cross-language conversations.
Pro Tips
Frequently Asked Questions
Which languages are supported for real-time translation?
Glasscribe supports 22+ languages for transcription and translation, including English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Italian, Malay, Norwegian, Dutch, and Swedish.
Does real-time translation require an internet connection?
No. Both the speech recognition and translation run entirely on your device using Apple's on-device frameworks. Once the language models are downloaded (which happens automatically), everything works offline.
How much delay does translation add?
Translation adds roughly 0.5-1 second of additional latency on top of the transcription delay, for a total of about 1-2.5 seconds from speech to translated text. This is fast enough to follow conversations in real time.