Ammon News - Multilingual conversations within the Messages app have become significantly smoother in iOS 26 thanks to Apple's new Live Translation feature. Users engaged in chats with friends or colleagues speaking different languages can now see instant, simultaneous translation of messages without interrupting the conversation flow, provided their operating system is updated to iOS 26.

This new Live Translation capability in Messages is powered by the Apple Intelligence AI system, making it exclusively available on newer hardware: iPhone 15 Pro, the entire iPhone 16 series, the iPhone 17 series, and the iPhone Air.

The feature currently supports nine languages: Chinese, French, German, Italian, English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian), and Spanish. When in use, all messages will appear in both languages on your device, while recipients will see the messages in their native language, provided they are using an iPhone running iOS 26, an iPad on iPadOS 26, or a Mac on macOS Tahoe.

The feature also allows users to translate incoming messages from older iPhones or Android phones. However, in this scenario, your replies will not be automatically translated on the recipient’s device.

How to Activate Live Translation
To activate and use the Live Translation feature for a specific conversation in the Messages app, follow these steps:

Open the Messages app, then tap on the contact's name at the top of the conversation.

Toggle on the "Automatically Translate" option.

Tap on "Translate From" to select the language of the messages you want translated into your native language.

Download the required language pack if prompted (the file size is approximately 900MB).