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 Forums: iOS 17, iPadOS 17, iOS 18, iPadOS 18

Popular Stories

iOS 26 Feature

iOS 26.1 to iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Saturday October 18, 2025 11:00 am PDT by
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across the Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, Clock, and Safari apps. More features and changes will follow in future ...
iphone air thickness

Apple Said to Cut iPhone Air Production Amid Underwhelming Sales

Friday October 17, 2025 8:29 am PDT by
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec). The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
ios 26 1 liquid glass opaque

iOS 26.1 Beta 4 Lets Users Control Liquid Glass Transparency with New Toggle

Monday October 20, 2025 10:57 am PDT by
With the fourth betas of iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS 26.1, Apple has introduced a new setting that's designed to allow users to customize the look of Liquid Glass. The toggle lets users select from a clear look for Liquid Glass, or a tinted look. Clear is the current Liquid Glass design, which is more transparent and shows the background underneath buttons, bars, and menus, while tinted ...
iOS 26

iOS 26.0.2 Update for iPhones Coming Soon

Friday October 17, 2025 7:35 am PDT by
Apple's software engineers continue to internally test iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. iOS 26.0.2 will be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet. The update will likely be released by the end of next week. Last month, Apple released iOS 26.0.1,...
iPhone Siri Glow

Some Apple Employees Have 'Concerns' About iOS 26.4's Revamped Siri

Sunday October 19, 2025 7:39 am PDT by
iOS 26.4 is expected to introduce a revamped version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, but not everyone is satisfied with how well it works. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said some of Apple's software engineers have "concerns" about the overhauled Siri's performance. However, he did not provide any specific details about the shortcomings. iOS 26.4 will...
Apple iPad Pro hero M5

New iPad Pro Has Six Key Upgrades Beyond M5 Chip

Saturday October 18, 2025 10:57 am PDT by
While the new iPad Pro's headline feature is the M5 chip, the device has some other changes, including N1 and C1X chips, faster storage speeds, and more. With the M5 chip, the new iPad Pro has up to a 20% faster CPU and up to a 40% faster GPU compared to the previous model with the M4 chip, according to Geekbench 6 results. Keep in mind that 256GB and 512GB configurations have a 9-core CPU,...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

Apple's Next Rumored Products: New HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and More

Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year. The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
m4 macbook air blue

M5 MacBook Air Coming Spring 2026 With M5 Mac Studio and Mac Mini in Development

Thursday October 16, 2025 3:57 pm PDT by
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year. Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a m...
14 inch MacBook Pro Keyboard

New 14-Inch MacBook Pro Has Two Key Upgrades Beyond the M5 Chip

Thursday October 16, 2025 8:31 am PDT by
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with an M5 chip, and there are two key storage-related upgrades beyond that chip bump. First, Apple says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro offers up to 2× faster SSD performance than the equivalent previous-generation model, so read and write speeds should get a significant boost. Apple says it is using "the latest storage technology," ...

Top Rated Comments

kevcube Avatar
18 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
18 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
18 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
18 months ago
What about adding new languages? The translate app is useless for a lot of users
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Böhme417 Avatar
18 months ago
If only the translate app didn’t suck…
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
18 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)