Church translation app
Choosing a church translation app: what matters on a real Sunday
A church translation app has to work for two very different people: the volunteer who runs it before the service, and the visitor in the back row who has never heard of it. If either of them struggles, the translation does not happen.
Below are the questions worth asking of any option, with PewTranslate's answer to each, including the limits we know about.
Does every listener have to install something?
Every install is a place where a first-time visitor gives up. App-store downloads also need storage, an account, and sometimes a password nobody remembers on Sunday morning.
PewTranslate runs in the phone's browser. Listeners scan a QR code, tap their language and press Play. No download, no account, no personal data asked for.
How many languages, and who chooses them?
Some systems make the church pick its languages in advance. PewTranslate lets each listener choose from 106 languages and regional variants, and translates into whatever is selected. A church that expects only Spanish is still covered when a Farsi-speaking family visits.
See the full language list.
Text, voice, or both?
Some listeners want to read so they can follow at their own pace; others want to close their eyes and listen. Older listeners often want larger text.
PewTranslate shows every sentence as text and can read it aloud with the phone's built-in voice. Listeners can enlarge the text, switch to dark mode, and show the original sentence under the translation, which helps bilingual families and people learning the language.
How hard is it for the volunteer?
The operator opens a web page on the laptop that already runs the slides or the livestream, picks the microphone or sound desk input, chooses the preacher's language and presses Start. The QR code is permanent, so nothing has to be reprinted. How it works shows every screen in order.
What does it cost, and is it predictable?
PewTranslate charges $5 per hour of speech for each language that someone is listening to, from a prepaid balance. There are no plans, seats or per-listener fees, and a stream stops rather than running up a debt. Details and worked examples are on the pricing page.
What happens after the service?
A report shows how many people listened and in which languages, the billable time and cost, and the full transcript with every translation, ready to download. Over a few weeks this shows which language groups are actually present, which helps when planning small groups or hiring.
Known limits
- It is machine translation. It is fast and covers many languages, but it can miss idioms, wordplay and names. A human interpreter is still better for a wedding vow or a sensitive pastoral moment.
- It needs an internet connection for the operator's laptop and for every listener's phone.
- Translations go to phones only; captions on the projector are not available yet.
- Right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Farsi are translated, but the listener view is laid out left to right.
Keep reading
- How Live Church Translation WorksHow PewTranslate works on a Sunday: the operator starts a stream from a laptop, listeners scan a QR code, and each phone shows and speaks the sermon in its own language.
- Pricing: $5 per Hour per LanguagePewTranslate costs $5 per hour for each language someone is listening to, billed by the minute of speech. New accounts get $20 of credit, about 4 hours of one language.
- Sermon Translation in 106 LanguagesEvery language PewTranslate offers: 106 listener languages and regional variants, and 82 languages the preacher can speak.
- Church Live Translation vs. Phone Translator AppsWhy a general translator app on a listener's phone struggles in a sanctuary, and how a church live translation feed like PewTranslate differs.