Use iPhone for spoken live translation

My husband suffers from dementia. We live in a country (French-speaking) other than our birth country (English-speaking) and he has forgotten our country’s language. He has never been much of a “device user”. He lives in a carehome now. Can I and if yes, how could I use Apple live translation for his carers so that they can communicate better with him? Can I get them an iPhone that they can use to speak to him and have him listen to the spoken (from French into English) translation on the iPhone? He will not be able to use AirPods or a headphone. The spoken translation would have to be him hearing it via that iPhone or other device (something easy to carry around for the carers). It would be so wonderful it this would be possible but anything I read refers to either “reading” or “AirPods”. It would also be useful for other residents of his care home whose native language is not French (my husband’s not the only one - there are native Italian and Czech speakers and communication is difficult with the French speaking carers, most of whom do not speak any other language than French). I’d definitely buy whatever I need to buy to enable communication between the carers and the non-French native speaking residents.

iPhone 12 mini

Posted on Nov 24, 2025 2:27 PM

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6 replies

Nov 24, 2025 2:39 PM in response to Miss Appeltaart

  • Live Translation requires AirPods(AirPods 4 (ANC), AirPods Pro 2, or AirPods Pro 3

) for the person with the iPhone.

You would need to buy the carers an iPhone and a set of AirPods to use for Live Translation.

The response back can be played out of the iPhone speakers once completed for your husband to listen to.

click here ➜ Use Live Translation with your AirPods - Apple Support




Nov 24, 2025 4:13 PM in response to Alancito

Thank you so much Alancito! I am so excited about the possibility for others than myself to be able to communicate with my husband and others. 🙏 I wasn’t even aware of the possibility until I said tonight in a discussion that I couldn’t wait until we’d have something hanging around our neck that would be able to translate in a spoken way as we speak and someone mentioned Live Spoken Translation. I tried translation apps in the past but the fact that people need to read made it never work properly. Thank you for your suggestion!

Nov 24, 2025 4:49 PM in response to Phil0124

Ah, understood. Thank you Phil! Live translation was the idea, but both options are worth a try. If either live translation or play-back translation works, I’d be the happiest person in the world. If it doesn’t work, I will have equipped myself with a new iPhone, which is not a bad thing either considering I’m still on an iPhone 12 mini. Thank you so much for your help, looks like I’m off to the Apple Store tomorrow!

Use iPhone for spoken live translation

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