How to follow an English lecture with live Chinese subtitles on iPhone

This is microphone translation, not video capture

Use Live when your phone needs to hear the room: a lecture, a small class or a conversation. Use Sound when the lecture is already playing as a video on the same iPhone. Live does not join Zoom, Teams or another meeting as a bot, and it does not require the speaker to install Hono.

Set it up before the lecture starts

Select the speaker language and your reading language, then complete any requested model download. Choose Bilingual if you want to check the English while reading Chinese. Tap Start live translation and grant the microphone permission. Test a few clear sentences before depending on the setup for a whole lecture.

Keep the microphone unobstructed and the phone near the voice or an audible speaker. A phone at the back of a noisy hall has a very different input from one on a quiet desk. Headphones do not bring the lecturer closer to the phone microphone.

Read along and return to recent lines

The subtitle view offers original, translation and bilingual display. If you need another app, use the in-app floating-window control to keep subtitles visible. Translation follows recognition, so it may appear after the sentence rather than matching each word as it is spoken.

Save text for review, if you need it

Translation records are a Premium feature. Check the relevant saving option in Me before starting, then end the session normally and open Translation records to review it. A text transcript is different from a recording of the lecturer or a video with subtitles. Do not assume that speech you did not save can be recovered later.

Know when a different setup is better

Multiple speakers, fast speech, specialist vocabulary, accents and loud background audio can lead to missed words or incorrect translation. If the organiser offers a direct audio feed, captions or interpretation, check that first. Hono is a reading aid, not certified interpretation or a guarantee that every sentence will be captured.

Recognition and translation run on the device after model preparation. Check the event rules before capturing speech, and stop when the session ends. Use an iPhone running iOS 26 or later and test long sessions with your own device and power conditions.

Questions

Is this the same as translating an online class video?

No. Use Live for the room microphone and Sound for available audio playing on your iPhone.

Can I save the bilingual text?

Premium members can save translation records. Enable the appropriate saving setting before the session and check the saved record afterwards.

Will it work from the back of a large room?

That depends on what the microphone can hear. Move closer or use the organiser provided captions or audio when available.

Choose your next step

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