Speaker (English)
Hi — could I have a table for two, please?
Salve, un tavolo per due, per favore?
Hello Ciao
Live translation
English ↔ Italian
through one pair of earbuds.
Share an earbud. Pick English and Italian. Each of you hears the other in your own language, live.
A sample exchange
Three turns between English and Italian, the way they'd actually go. Each card shows the original line above the translation.
Speaker (Italian)
Certo. Dentro o fuori?
Of course — inside or outside?
Speaker (English)
Outside, please. Thank you.
Fuori, per favore. Grazie.
What metcha supports for this pair
| English | Italian | |
|---|---|---|
| Apple on-device translation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deepgram cloud STT | ✓ | ✓ |
| iOS built-in voices | ✓ | ✓ |
| ElevenLabs premium voices (Plus) | 6 voices | 4 voices |
| Voice cloning (Plus, your voice) | ✓ | ✓ |
Why metcha for this pair
English ↔ Italian benefits a lot from premium TTS. Italian read by a flat synthetic voice sounds wooden; metcha Plus's ElevenLabs voices add the natural rise and fall that makes the language sound human. The on-device free path is fully functional for travel, the upgrade pays off most in meaningful conversations.
Common phrases
Hand-picked phrases for everyday Italian-speaking situations. In metcha you don't need to memorize these — but they're useful to anchor what the app sounds like before you try it.
- Greeting
-
English: Hello, good morning.
Italian: Buongiorno.
- Thank you
-
English: Thank you very much.
Italian: Grazie mille.
- Apology
-
English: Sorry, I don't speak Italian.
Italian: Mi dispiace, non parlo italiano.
- Café
-
English: A coffee, please.
Italian: Un caffè, per favore.
- Directions
-
English: Where is the train station?
Italian: Dov'è la stazione dei treni?
- Restaurant
-
English: What do you recommend?
Italian: Cosa mi consiglia?
- Bill
-
English: The bill, please.
Italian: Il conto, per favore.
- Hotel
-
English: I have a reservation.
Italian: Ho una prenotazione.
- Allergies
-
English: I have a gluten allergy.
Italian: Sono allergico al glutine.
- Help
-
English: Could you help me, please?
Italian: Mi potrebbe aiutare, per favore?
Where you'd use it
- Travel in Italy — Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice See the Rome guide →
- Reconnecting with extended family in Italy
- Food and wine tours where part of the value is the conversation
- Restaurants and trattorias welcoming international diners For restaurants →
Common questions
- Does metcha translate Italian to English as well as English to Italian?
- Yes, both directions run in the same session. When someone speaks English, the other person hears it in Italian; when they reply in Italian, you hear it in English. There is no direction to configure and no turn-taking button. See how it works for the full walkthrough.
- Is English ↔ Italian translation in metcha on-device or cloud?
- Both. metcha's free tier uses Apple's on-device Translation framework where supported (available for both English and Italian). metcha Plus optionally routes through a Better Translation cloud path for more natural phrasing, with a quiet fallback to the on-device path when the network is slow.
- Do I need both AirPods to use metcha for English and Italian?
- No. The simplest mode is one earbud each — you keep one, the other person keeps the other. metcha handles both directions through that single shared pair. If you'd rather both wear your own earbuds, you can pair a second phone in seconds via a QR code (still no app install for the other person).
- What about regional accents within Italian?
- metcha's Deepgram STT path handles major regional variants of Italian robustly. The on-device path is more sensitive to accent — if you find the free path missing words, switching to the metcha Plus cloud STT usually fixes it without changing anything else about the conversation.
- Does it work without internet?
- The free on-device path works fully offline once the relevant Apple Translation language packs are downloaded. metcha Plus features that depend on Deepgram, Better Translation, or ElevenLabs voices need a network connection.
- How many voices does metcha ship for Italian?
- 4 curated native-Italian voices on metcha Plus, plus all iOS built-in voices on the free tier (and any Enhanced or Premium voices you've installed in Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content).
- Are conversations private?
- metcha does not store conversations on our servers, and none of our providers retain audio for training. The free on-device path never sends audio off your phone at all. See the privacy policy for the full data-handling story.