Translate French, with no signal at all.
Typed French translation and the camera both run on your iPhone, so a menu or a sign in French can be read in flight mode. Below are two real ones, printed, photographed and translated by the app, and left unedited.
Typing works with no signal
Download the French pack once, over hotel wifi, and typed translation runs on the phone from then on — as it does in all 58 languages.
The camera reads it on the phone
Your iPhone reads French from a photograph itself. Nothing is sent anywhere, and it works with the phone in flight mode.
Speech depends on your iPhone
Spoken translation uses Apple's own speech packs, which cover about half of these languages and differ from phone to phone — so the app tells you if it cannot hear French rather than failing while someone waits. How speech works.
Two real ones, printed and photographed
Both went through the app on an iPhone from pages we had printed, so the French is known rather than guessed. What came back is below it, unedited.
Printed on it
- Menu du jour
- Soupe de légumes avec du pain
- Poulet grillé avec des pommes de terre
- Poisson frais du jour
- Gâteau au chocolat
- Café et thé compris
What the app gave back
- Menu of the day
- Soup of vegetables with bread
- Grilled chicken with potatoes
- Fresh fish of the day
- Chocolate cake
- Coffee and tea included
Read and translated on an iPhone, 1 September 2026, from a page we had printed — so the original is known rather than guessed. Nothing here is tidied up.
Every dish came through. "Soupe de légumes" became "Soup of vegetables", word for word rather than how anyone would say it, but nobody orders the wrong thing from it.
Printed on it
- Gare Centrale
- Voie 3
- Trains pour l'aéroport
- Achetez votre billet avant de monter
- Sortie à droite
What the app gave back
- Central Station
- Way 3
- Trains to the airport
- Buy your ticket before mounting
- Exit
Read and translated on an iPhone, 1 September 2026, from a page we had printed — so the original is known rather than guessed. Nothing here is tidied up.
Less tidy. "Voie 3" came back as "Way 3" rather than Platform 3, and "Sortie à droite" lost its "on the right", leaving just "Exit". The ticket line is right in meaning, if odd in wording: "before mounting".
Questions
Does French camera translation work offline?
Yes. Your iPhone reads French from a photograph itself, so a scan works in flight mode and nothing is sent anywhere.
Does typed French translation work offline?
Yes. Download the French pack once, over wifi, and typing runs entirely on the phone from then on. That is true of all 58 languages.
How good is the French translation?
Good enough for menus, signs and tickets, and not for anything that matters legally or medically. The two examples on this page are unedited, mistakes included, so you can judge it yourself before you pay anything.
Can SofiLingo hear spoken French?
It depends on your iPhone. Spoken translation uses Apple’s own speech packs, which cover about half of the 58 languages and differ from phone to phone, so the app tells you before you start if it cannot hear French.
Take it with you
The first 15 translations are free, with ads and no card. Download the French pack before you go and the phone can do the rest on its own.
Get SofiLingo on the App StoreAll 58 languages · translating with the camera · translating with no internet · a translator for going abroad
Languages with a page of their own: Spanish · Greek · Japanese · Chinese · Thai · Italian · Turkish · Vietnamese · Hindi · Marathi · German · Portuguese · Arabic · Korean