r/swahili • u/ecolucci • Aug 27 '26

Ask r/Swahili 🎤 Translation App for Apple Mobile Devices

I seek a good Swahili-to-English and English-to-Swahili (single) translation app for use on Apple mobile devices (iOS and iPadOS). The app should accept written and voice inputs from either language and output to either language in either format. I currently use Google Translate, but I find this app lacking. Can anyone provide the name of a more accurate and overall superior app?

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2

u/leosmith66 Aug 28 '26

Have you tried ChatGPT? It's not great, but it's a bit better than Google Translate ime.

2

u/ecolucci Aug 28 '26

I'm trying ChatGPT now, but the translation adds too much extraneous verbiage. I require a word-for-word translation as if I were conversing with a native Swahili speaker and vice versa to English.

I am in a classroom situation one-on-one with a Swahili speaker. He speaks very little English, and I speak no Swahili. Perhaps there is a way to configure ChatGPT to yield what I want without the wordiness, but I haven't figured it out yet.

1

u/Puzzled-Inevitable51 Aug 29 '26

I'd recommend using DeepL. It's one of the best translation apps for accuracy. Also, Swahili is available on there.

2

u/ecolucci Aug 30 '26

I might have to bite the bullet. I often used DeepL in the past and like it, but I wanted to avoid spending more money than I already have on (exotic) language-translation software. I don't think that will happen. Still, DeepL's rates are not as severe as others' (for real-time conversation translations). Thanks for the kick in the ass.