Translate Spanish with no signal at all.
Spain, Mexico, Argentina, a motorway services in the middle of nowhere. Spanish is one of the languages your iPhone reads and translates entirely on its own — so the camera, the typing and the whole thing keep working in flight mode, on a ferry, or on the last bar of roaming you are trying not to spend.
Typing works with no signal
Download the Spanish 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 Spanish 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 Spanish rather than failing while someone waits. How speech works.
Two real ones, printed and photographed
Both of these went through the app's own camera pipeline on an iPhone, from pages we had printed — so the Spanish is known rather than guessed, and what came back is below it untouched.
Printed on it
- Menú de hoy
- Sopa de verduras con pan
- Pollo a la parrilla con patatas
- Pescado fresco del día
- Tarta de chocolate
- Café y té incluidos
What the app gave back
- Today's menu
- Vegetable soup with bread
- Grilled chicken with potatoes
- Fresh day fish
- 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.
Six lines, six usable answers — and "pescado fresco del día" came back as "fresh day fish", which is the fish of the day said by someone who has never ordered one. You would know what you were getting. You would not put it on your own menu.
Printed on it
- Estación Central
- Andén 3
- Trenes al aeropuerto
- Compre su billete antes de subir
- Salida a la derecha
What the app gave back
- Central station
- Platform
- Airport trains
- Buy your ticket before going up
- Exit to the right
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.
Here is the one that matters: "Andén 3" came back as "Platform" and the 3 is gone.The number is the single most useful thing on that sign. "Compre su billete antes de subir" is right in substance and awkward in English — "before going up" for "before boarding" — which is the shape most of its mistakes take.
This is a machine reading a photograph, and it is the same machine in every translation app you can buy. The difference on this site is that the example is here with its faults in it rather than a screenshot chosen because it went well. How the camera reads.
Questions
Does Spanish translation work offline on iPhone?
Yes, completely. Download the Spanish pack once and typed translation runs on the phone. Spanish is also one of the languages the phone can read from a photograph on its own, so the camera works with no signal too — no image is sent anywhere.
Can it translate a Spanish menu with the camera?
Yes. Point the camera at the menu, press the shutter, and the translation is drawn over the photograph and written out underneath. There is a worked example of exactly that on this page, misreadings and all.
Is it good enough to order food and read signs?
That is what it is for. It is on-device machine translation: reliable for menus, signs, tickets and leaflets, and not to be relied on for anything medical, legal or contractual. The examples on this page are unedited, so you can judge it before you buy anything.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no sign-up, no email address and no password anywhere in the app. The first 15 translations are free with advertisements; a holiday pass or a subscription removes them.
Take it with you
The first 15 translations are free, with ads and no card. Download the Spanish pack before you go and the phone can do the rest on its own.
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