Real time audio translation

[phruby]

During our Stake conference we translate English to Mandarin and Spanish. The missionaries called to translate do an okay job keeping up. However, it would be better if Google translate or something else does it. Is this possible? Is there something we can purchase? Can we connect it into ListenWifi channels?

[n4yrd]

We have a similar need. We have one building that is attempting on their own to provide Mandarin and Russian weekly. We have another building struggling with Swahili. For our stake conferences we need these languages plus Haitian Creole. Our Spanish team for conferences is well established but the other languages are a struggle for us. I had an FM Tech tell me that some buildings have had AI translation installed in their audio systems. Can this be verified and if so, where can we learn more about this?

[BrianEdwards]

Unfortunately, there is no Church-sponsored solution, and from what I've seen here in the Tech Forum, there's a wide variety of implementations. A lot depending on the tech-savviness of the local members, and also challenging to keep up with the rapid improvements in AI-based tools.

A good reference might be this thread from last February 2025:
AI Translation Update + New Tool for Church Meetings
The initial post also does a decent job of referencing previous Forum threads on this topic, which may be of interest. Unfortunately, I haven't seen anybody in the Forum post a "success story" from using that tool -- perhaps people have indeed been using it, but there's no posts about that. Also, as it's a year old, there's definitely a lot of new advances and new tools that are out there that wouldn't be captured in that thread.

[asevey]

In our stake we've had really good success using Zoom's built-in translated captions. All that is needed is for the host Zoom account to enable the setting for "Meeting > In Meeting (Advanced) >
Translated Captions" and then a (preferably windows device for best looking captions) laptop can join the stream and choose to show translated (in our case Spanish) captions. Optionally, we plug the laptop into either a tv or a projector to make the words larger and easier to see.

[rgme]

There appears to be a pilot of AI-based interpretation/translation since summer 2025. I don't know the status of it, and I'm not in it, but I've heard about it:

https://tech.churchofjesuschrist.org/wi ... ings_Pilot

The three solutions had pages that have since been deleted, though if you are familiar with wiki tools you can see some history.

[BrianEdwards]

There appears to be a pilot of AI-based interpretation/translation since summer 2025. I don't know the status of it, and I'm not in it, but I've heard about it

Thanks for that pointer! I'm never quite sure if I prefer knowing about potential Church Tech solutions, or remaining in the dark. There's plenty of things thru the years where the Church has indicated that something is upcoming, only to never actually see the light of day. And then of course there's things that Forum members have given up hope for, that suddenly and magically appear without any indication the Church had this in the pipeline.

I'm really glad to know the Church is making some level of effort. This is a global issue with real implications for members and friends who can feel like outsiders when they don't speak the native language, and it's a barrier to feeling the Spirit. Everyone's trying to do their best but not all local leaders are proficient in these types of things.