Speaker (English)
Excuse me — is there a convenience store near the station?
すみません、駅の近くにコンビニはありますか？
Hello こんにちは
Live translation
English ↔ Japanese
through one pair of earbuds.
Share an earbud. Pick English and Japanese. Each of you hears the other in your own language, live.
A sample exchange
Three turns between English and Japanese, the way they'd actually go. Each card shows the original line above the translation.
Speaker (Japanese)
はい、南口を出てすぐ右にローソンがあります。
Yes — right outside the south exit on the right, there's a Lawson.
Speaker (English)
Perfect, thank you very much.
完璧です、ありがとうございます。
What metcha supports for this pair
| English | Japanese | |
|---|---|---|
| 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 ↔ Japanese is one of the hardest live translation pairs because of word-order differences and the gap between formal and casual registers. metcha leans on Apple's on-device Japanese Translation language pack for the free path, and an LLM-assisted cloud path on metcha Plus that handles politeness levels (です／ます vs casual) more naturally than a literal machine translation.
Common phrases
Hand-picked phrases for everyday Japanese-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, nice to meet you.
Japanese: こんにちは、はじめまして。
- Thank you
-
English: Thank you so much.
Japanese: 本当にありがとうございます。
- Apology
-
English: Sorry, I don't understand.
Japanese: すみません、わかりません。
- Asking for help
-
English: Could you help me, please?
Japanese: 助けていただけますか？
- Directions
-
English: Where is the nearest train station?
Japanese: 一番近い駅はどこですか？
- Ordering food
-
English: I'd like the recommended dish, please.
Japanese: おすすめをお願いします。
- Allergy
-
English: I'm allergic to shellfish.
Japanese: 甲殻類アレルギーがあります。
- Bill
-
English: Could I have the check, please?
Japanese: お会計をお願いします。
- Hotel check-in
-
English: I have a reservation under [name].
Japanese: [名前] で予約しています。
- Pharmacy
-
English: Do you have anything for a headache?
Japanese: 頭痛の薬はありますか？
Where you'd use it
- Travel in Japan — Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka See the Tokyo guide →
- Talking with a partner's Japanese family across generations
- Business meetings with a Tokyo or Osaka team
- Restaurant front-of-house with bilingual guests For restaurants →
Common questions
- Does metcha translate Japanese to English as well as English to Japanese?
- Yes, both directions run in the same session. When someone speaks English, the other person hears it in Japanese; when they reply in Japanese, 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 ↔ Japanese 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 Japanese). 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 Japanese?
- 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 Japanese?
- metcha's Deepgram STT path handles major regional variants of Japanese 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 Japanese?
- 4 curated native-Japanese 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.