Live Call Translation

Speak your language, they hear theirs. Turning on AI translation in the web dialer, the 62 languages, the $0.20/min price, the greeting and Beta limits.

Live call translation lets you speak your language on a phone call while the other person hears theirs. Turn on AI Translation in the web dialer, pick the two languages and call. It costs $0.20 per minute on top of the normal call rate, and it's in Beta.

The person you call doesn't need an app or an account. To them it's an ordinary phone call, so landlines work too.

Where it works

Translation works on outgoing calls from the web dialer at bubblyphone.com, in a browser on a computer or a phone. The iPhone and Android apps don't have it yet.

It isn't available on incoming calls to your BubblyPhone number.

How to turn it on

Switch on AI Translation in the dialer before you call, then choose what the other side hears and what you hear.

Open the Dialer and enter the number.
Turn on the AI Translation switch. It's marked Beta and reads "Speak your language — they hear theirs ($0.20/min)".
Under They speak, pick the other person's language. Under You hear, pick yours.
Check the rate shown in the dialer, then place the call.

The two languages must be different. If they match, the dialer shows "Pick two different languages — translation is off while both match." and the call goes through without translation or its charge.

Supported languages

You can choose from 62 languages. You don't need to tell the dialer which language you speak: it's detected automatically, and you can switch languages mid-call. The two menus only set what each side hears.

Afrikaans, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Belarusian, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Malayalam, Maori, Marathi, Nepali, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese and Welsh.

What it costs

Translation adds $0.20 per minute to the normal rate for the number you're calling. There is no subscription and nothing to pay when you don't use it.

The dialer shows the total. With translation on, the rate line adds it for you, for example "(… + $0.20 translation)", and the minutes estimate uses the combined rate.
It's billed like the call. Only answered time counts, billed per started minute, and the charge is taken from your balance when the call ends. A 3-minute-10-second call is billed as 4 minutes of call plus 4 minutes of translation.
Your balance runs down at the combined rate. The longest call your balance allows is worked out at call rate plus translation, so a translated call can last fewer minutes than an untranslated one.
No translation charge if it fails. If translation can't start, or stops during the call, you pay only the normal call rate for that call.

See Billing, Credits & Pricing for how call charges work in general.

What the other person hears

They hear an AI voice speaking their language, not your own voice. You hear an AI voice speaking your language, not theirs.

When they answer, a short greeting plays first so they know the call is translated. You choose the greeting under Greeting settings in the dialer, or in Settings › Preferences › Call Translation Greeting. Both places change the same setting.

Default plays a recorded notice in their language. In English it says: "Notice: this call is being translated in real time by an automatic interpreter."
Custom plays your own text, up to 300 characters, in a voice you pick. Write it in the other person's language, exactly as it should be spoken. Select Preview to hear it before you save.
Off plays nothing. The AI voice sounds synthetic, so telling them a translator is on the line is then up to you.

During and after the call

Expect a pause of 1 to 2 seconds after each sentence while it's translated. Say a sentence, let the interpreter finish, then listen for the reply. It works like talking through a human interpreter, not like simultaneous speech.

Live captions. While the call is active, the dialer shows what each side said and its translation.
Saved transcript. After you hang up, the full bilingual transcript appears as Translated conversation on the call's page in Call History.

Limits and what Beta means

Beta means the translation layer is new and still improving. The call itself is a normal BubblyPhone call. Voices and translation quality get better over time, and now and then a sentence may come out awkward.

Web dialer and outgoing calls only. The iPhone and Android apps, and incoming calls, aren't covered yet.
You can't pick the translation voice. Only the voice of a custom greeting can be changed.
There is a delay. Each sentence takes 1 to 2 seconds to come through.
It can drop. If translation can't start you'll see "Live translation is unavailable right now — calling normally." If it stops mid-call you'll see "Live translation dropped — continuing with normal audio." The call carries on, both of you hear each other's real voices, and there is no translation charge.

If a translated call went wrong, report it from the call's page. See Refunds & Reporting Call Issues. For transcripts and AI summaries, see Call Transcription & AI Summary.