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How to translate or dub a video on iPhone
Three options, in ascending order of cost: translated subtitles, an AI dub, or a re-recorded voice-over. Subtitles are the right default — cheap, reversible, and they keep your real voice. Whichever you choose, transcribe and correct in the original language first, because translation quality is capped by transcription quality. Talk transcribes on-device in 31 languages, translates a transcript in one tap, and can generate a dub.
Pick the right one first
| Approach | Effort | Keeps your voice | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Translated subtitles | Low | Yes | Most videos. Reversible, cheap, and works on muted autoplay |
| AI dub | Medium | Sometimes, if the tool clones it | Audiences that will not read; instructional video where eyes are on a task |
| Re-recorded voice-over | High | No | Commercial work where a mistranslation has real consequences |
A useful default: subtitle everything, and dub only the videos you have evidence are being watched in a market where subtitles are underperforming. Dubbing every video pre-emptively is how people spend a lot of effort on languages nobody was watching in.
The steps
- Transcribe in the original language and fix it This is the step that determines everything downstream. A transcription error does not stay an error — it becomes a fluent, confident, plausible sentence in the target language, which is far harder to catch than obvious garble. Fix names, numbers, and technical terms now.
- Translate the corrected transcript One tap in Talk. Keep the original — you will want it for the second and third language, and re-transcribing is wasted work.
- Style the captions, or generate the dub For captions, apply a style and verify the longer language still fits inside the safe area. For a dub, generate the audio — note that this sends data off-device, unlike Talk’s transcription and captioning.
- Re-check the timing, because length changes The same sentence is 20–30% longer in German or Spanish and considerably shorter in Chinese. Captions may need re-splitting; a dub may drift. Check every moment where audio has to line up with something on screen.
- Export one cut per language Burned-in captions cannot be switched off, so a single file cannot serve two languages. For YouTube, upload a subtitle file per language against one video instead.
Where AI translation fails
The failure mode is fluency, not incoherence. Machine translation now produces natural sentences that are confidently wrong, which means errors pass review unless someone actually speaks the language.
- Idioms translated literally, producing something surreal
- Humour, which almost never survives, and jokes that land differently or badly in another culture
- Brand and product names helpfully translated into common nouns
- Technical vocabulary mapped to the wrong domain sense
- Formality register — languages with a formal/informal distinction get it wrong roughly half the time, and being inappropriately familiar reads badly
- Units, currencies, and dates, which are translated but not converted
For anything with commercial or legal weight, have a speaker of the target language read the translated transcript. It takes minutes and it is the only reliable check.
Voice cloning and consent
Some dubbing tools clone the speaker’s voice so the dub sounds like them. Worth being deliberate about: cloning your own voice is your business, but cloning a client’s, an interviewee’s, or an employee’s voice is not, even when you own the footage. Filming someone is not consent to synthesise their voice saying words they never said. Get it in writing, and expect this to be regulated more tightly than it currently is.
Frequently asked questions
Can you dub a video into another language on an iPhone?
Yes. Talk can translate a transcript and generate dubbed audio. Dubbing sends data to a server because the models are too large to run on a phone, unlike Talk’s on-device transcription and captioning.
Should I use subtitles or dubbing?
Subtitles for most cases — cheaper, reversible, and they keep your real voice. Dub when your audience will not read, or when the viewer’s eyes are on a task. Publishing both as separate cuts beats compromising on one.
How accurate is AI dubbing?
Fluent, which is the risk — errors sound natural and survive review. Idioms, humour, brand names, and technical vocabulary are where it fails. Have a native speaker check anything that matters.
Does dubbing keep my own voice?
Depends on the tool — some clone the speaker, others use a generic synthetic voice. Do not clone someone else’s voice without written permission.
Why don’t my subtitles fit after translation?
Text length changes with language. German and Spanish run 20–30% longer than English; Chinese and Japanese are shorter. Re-split the captions and recheck the safe area.
Which languages can Talk caption and translate?
31 languages for on-device captions, with translation between them. The App Store listing is localised more widely than that, which is a separate thing from caption coverage.