An automatic translator at your service — in under a second

No. One phone, yours, on the table. They speak normally; you read it in your language and answer with the green button. They never touch the phone and wear nothing in their ear.

No. The phone on the table does the listening and the speaking: you read the translation on its screen and it says your answer out loud, so nobody wears anything in their ear. If it is hearing through a headset, it asks you to take it off, so it can hear the whole table. On a loud terrace you can add any Bluetooth speaker, yours or ours, so your answer is heard.

Yes. The app listens to the whole table and tells the voices apart: each person gets their own line on screen, numbered, translated. That way you follow a conversation between three or four people and know who said what, not only what was said. In a very loud place the separation can still slip, which is why the two settings that narrow the listening to your table exist.

The phone never changes hands and you never wait for the other person to press something. The conversation writes itself, both ways, and for noisy places you have two settings that narrow the listening to your own table.

Yes. Photograph the menu and the dishes appear in your language, prices included. Tap a dish and the phone orders it out loud in their language. Take the photo straight on and in good light, so every line can be read.

Yes. Two switches in Settings are there for it. With the first, every line shows who said it, in the text size you choose, and the indicator says in words when someone is speaking. With the second, for people who cannot speak, you type and the phone says it out loud. It costs nothing extra. It can make mistakes, more so in noise, and it does not replace a sign-language interpreter. More on the hearing & speech help page.

No. Translation happens live on servers in Europe, so you need mobile data or Wi-Fi. It uses little: the audio leaves compressed.

Very good at a table, in ordinary conversation. It is a conversation aid, not a certified translation; for serious medical or legal matters find a translator.

Sixty spoken languages, recognised and translated both ways. The app itself is written in forty of them and settles on your phone's language by itself.

Under a second. The words write themselves on screen while the person in front of you is still speaking, not after they finish the sentence.

Yes. Two settings narrow the listening to your own table: the cone microphone, which hears only what is in front, and the proximity threshold, which cuts the voices from the tables around you. For a packed terrace there is also the speaker, which says your answer loudly enough to be heard.

Your e-mail address, that is all. No password to remember: you get a code by e-mail and stay signed in for months. The first fifteen minutes are free.

It is not a subscription. You buy hours once — 3, 10 or 20 — and they never expire. A pack bought before one holiday is still there for the next. Nothing renews itself and nothing is taken from your card.

No. Audio goes to translation while you talk and we do not keep it afterwards. We keep your e-mail address, your purchases and a record of the minutes you used; conversations you choose to save stay on your phone only.

It helps you understand each other there too, but it is a conversation aid, not a certified translation. For a diagnosis, a notarised document or a court case, ask for a sworn translator.

iPhone and Android.