iPhone Apps Can Integrate With Apple's Translate App on iOS 17.4 and Later

In a WWDC 2024 coding video last week, Apple highlighted a recently-introduced API that allows developers to offer built-in Translate app capabilities in their own apps on iOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4, macOS Sonoma, and later.

iOS 17 4 Translate App API
While the iPhone, iPad, and Mac already offer a system-level translation function for highlighted text, websites viewed in Safari, and more, the API provides a convenient solution for user-generated content like reviews. For example, if a user writes a review in Japanese, the text can be quickly translated to other languages.

iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia enhance the API by allowing translated text to appear in-line within an app, instead of in an overlaid Translate sheet.

iOS 18 Translate App API
Another language-related change on iOS 18 is bilingual keyboard support. For example, you can type in English and Korean on the same keyboard without having to manually switch languages, complete with word suggestions in each language.

iOS 18 Multilingual Keyboard
iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia are currently in beta for developers. The software updates will be released later this year.

Related Roundups: iOS 18, iPadOS 18
Related Forums: iOS 17, iPadOS 17, iOS 18, iPadOS 18

Popular Stories

ios 18 4 carplay

iOS 18.4 Includes a Small But Useful Change for CarPlay

Sunday February 23, 2025 2:23 pm PST by
The first beta of iOS 18.4 is now available, and it includes a small but useful change for CarPlay. As we noted in our list of iOS 18.4 features, CarPlay now shows a third row of icons, up from two rows previously. However, this change is only visible in vehicles with a larger center display. For example, a MacRumors Forums member noticed the change in a Toyota Tundra, which can be equipped...
cook trump

Trump Responds to Apple Keeping Diversity Policies

Wednesday February 26, 2025 6:32 am PST by
In an all-caps post on Truth Social today, U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple should fully end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Tim Cook meeting with President Trump in 2017 "APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM," he wrote. Trump's post comes one day after Apple held its annual shareholders meeting, during which a majority of...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
iOS 18

Apple Says iOS 18.4 Will Be Released in April With These New Features

Wednesday February 26, 2025 7:15 am PST by
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.4 will be released in April. From the Apple News+ Food announcement:Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the...
iPhone Fold Vertical Feature

Apple's 2026 Foldable iPhone Has No Visible Display Crease – Report

Tuesday February 25, 2025 2:58 am PST by
Apple is making significant headway on its long-rumored foldable iPhone, with a new report suggesting the company has achieved a major breakthrough by effectively eliminating the screen crease that plagues current foldable devices. According to Korean publication ETNews, Apple is finalizing its component suppliers for the foldable iPhone, with the selection process expected to be completed...
airtag orange

AirTag 2 Rumored to Launch in May or June With These New Features

Monday February 24, 2025 6:11 am PST by
Apple plans to launch a second-generation AirTag in May or June this year, according to a post today from a leaker known as Kosutami. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously reported that a new AirTag would be released in mid-2025. May or June would align with that timeframe. Below, we recap three new features rumored for the AirTag 2: With a second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, the...
iphone 17 lineup cad render majin bu

Revealed: Entire iPhone 17 Lineup's Striking New Camera Designs

Monday February 24, 2025 2:49 am PST by
A new CAD render of all the devices in Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 lineup has been shared online by leaker Majin Bu, specifically showing the allegedly different rear camera system designs of the standard iPhone 17, all-new ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air, and the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max models. The leaker Majin Bu has had some hits in the past, but some of his information has been wrong,...
trump iphone dictation issue

Apple Fixing 'Trump' Dictation Processing Bug

Tuesday February 25, 2025 1:18 pm PST by
Multiple iPhone owners today noticed a pronunciation processing issue that causes the word "Trump" to momentarily show up when using dictation to send a message with the word "racist." In some cases, when speaking the word racist through the iPhone's built-in dictation feature, the iPhone briefly interprets the spoken word as "Trump" and "Trump" text shows up in the Messages app before being ...

Top Rated Comments

kevcube Avatar
9 months ago
Unfortunately apple’s translate app is inferior to Google’s in almost every way. Hopefully they can pull a Maps and make it useful someday.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
clive27 Avatar
9 months ago
I hope that Siri will soon be able to speak bilingually without requiring changes to the settings, just like the bilingual keyboard support. As a Korean American, I use my Korean contacts' names in Korean and chat in Korean, while everything else is in English. Currently, I can only set Siri to either English or Korean. English Siri doesn’t speak Korean at all, and Korean Siri speaks English like a native Korean who has never spoken English before. I wish Siri could detect the language automatically and use the appropriate speech. Maybe the ChatGPT integration will fix that.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mongobongo Avatar
9 months ago

The keyboard has been bilingual since iOS 10 actually. They just made it more obvious by adding the letters to the space bar
Only for a very limited number of languages. If they finally add Swedish to that list it will be by far my favourite new feature in iOS 18 ?

https://www.apple.com/ios/feature-availability/#quicktype-keyboard-multilingual-typing
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
daniesy Avatar
9 months ago
What about adding new languages? The translate app is useless for a lot of users
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Böhme417 Avatar
9 months ago
If only the translate app didn’t suck…
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
9 months ago
iOS 18 looking to be a very good update. Here's to hoping Apple squashes most bugs before release so I don't have to wait until 18.3 or 18.4
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)