AirPods Live Translation vs EzDubs

What’s the Future of Real-Time Conversation?

Amrutavarsh Kinagi •
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What Is AirPods Live Translation?

Apple has announced Live Translation for AirPods Pro 3 (also supported on AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation), powered by Apple Intelligence and computational audio. With this feature, AirPods can now translate in-person conversations across a limited set of languages. It’s a glimpse into a future where your earbuds double as interpreters.

But how does this compare with EzDubs, the platform built by pioneers in real-time translation for phone calls, video calls, and messages—and available on both iOS and Android?

In-Person Focus

The primary design of AirPods Live Translation is for face-to-face communication. If you’re traveling abroad and trying to ask for directions, ordering food in another language, or casually chatting with someone you just met, AirPods can step in as your personal interpreter. The translation is delivered straight into your earbuds, giving you a hands-free way to understand and respond without pulling out your phone for every exchange. However, because it’s sentence-based, conversations may feel more stop-and-go compared to natural dialogue.

Transcription Display

Apple has also considered situations where the other person doesn’t have AirPods. In these cases, the iPhone becomes part of the interaction. By turning your iPhone horizontally, it acts as a translation screen, displaying live transcription of what you’re saying in the other person’s preferred language. When they respond, their speech is picked up and translated back into your language, with the result played through your AirPods. This creates a bridge between AirPods users and non-users, though it adds the extra step of holding out your phone during the conversation.

Two-AirPod Setup

The experience improves slightly when both people in a conversation are wearing AirPods with Live Translation enabled and connected to their respective iPhones. In this setup, each participant hears translations directly in their earbuds, which makes longer conversations more manageable. Apple even integrates Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) to lower the volume of the other person’s untranslated voice, helping you focus on the translated version. Still, because the translations only happen after a sentence is complete, the back-and-forth rhythm of natural speech can feel slowed down.

Supported Languages

At launch, AirPods Live Translation supports a limited set of languages: English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Apple has announced that by the end of the year, the feature will expand to include Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified Chinese. While this is a step forward, it means the feature currently supports fewer than ten languages, making it less versatile for global users. In contrast, other translation platforms already cover dozens of languages, which makes Apple’s rollout feel narrow for now.

Apple describes this as a hands-free way to connect while traveling, working, or socializing—but it’s important to note the caveats.

Limitations of AirPods Translation

The convenience of the AirPods translator come with some caveats:

  • iPhone dependency – AirPods don’t translate on their own; they require an iPhone running Apple Intelligence.
  • Sentence-level delay – Translations are delivered only after a full sentence is spoken, making conversations slower and less natural.
  • Synthetic voice output – Apple uses a generic, canned voice that strips away tone and emotion.
  • Limited language coverage – With fewer than ten languages supported, Apple lags behind translation platforms like EzDubs that already support 30+ languages.

The EzDubs Difference: Real-Time, Emotionally Accurate Translation

EzDubs was designed for the places where communication truly matters: calls, video calls, and messages. Unlike AirPods, which focus on casual face-to-face interactions, EzDubs is about fluid, human-like conversation in any context.

  • Under one second latency – Translates continuously in real time, so conversations feel natural and fluid without pauses.
  • Voice cloning with emotion – Instead of a robotic voice, EzDubs recreates your own tone, cadence, and emotional expression.
  • Cross-platform availability – Works seamlessly on both Android and iOS, covering phone calls, video calls, and even voice notes.
  • Wide language coverage – EzDubs already supports 30+ languages, far beyond Apple’s limited rollout.
  • Privacy-first design – HIPAA compliant and privacy-focused, ensuring conversations remain secure.

The result: conversations that don’t feel like translations—they just feel like conversations.

Which Should You Use?

AirPods Live Translation is best suited for in-person scenarios—like traveling, chatting with strangers abroad, or having casual interactions. It’s a clever innovation that makes Apple’s hardware even more useful if you’re already in the Apple ecosystem and own an iPhone. But it’s not a complete communication solution: it’s tied to iPhone, limited in language coverage, relies on sentence-level delays, and uses a synthetic voice that lacks emotional fidelity.

EzDubs, on the other hand, was built for real conversations that matter—from multilingual business meetings and long-distance calls to video chats with family or international team collaboration. It works seamlessly on both iOS and Android, supports 30+ languages, and delivers translations in under a second while preserving your voice, tone, and emotions so conversations feel natural and authentic.

The bottom line: Use AirPods when you want quick, in-person translations. Choose EzDubs when you need true human connection—whether on a phone call, a video chat, or any conversation that matters.