Speaker (English)
This soup is delicious. Did you make it yourself?
Этот суп очень вкусный. Вы сами его приготовили?
Hello Привет
Live translation
English ↔ Russian
through one pair of earbuds.
Share an earbud. Pick English and Russian. Each of you hears the other in your own language, live.
A sample exchange
Three turns between English and Russian, the way they'd actually go. Each card shows the original line above the translation.
Speaker (Russian)
Да, это рецепт моей мамы. Я рада, что вам нравится.
Yes, it's my mother's recipe. I'm glad you like it.
Speaker (English)
I'd love to learn to make it someday.
Мне бы очень хотелось когда-нибудь научиться его готовить.
What metcha supports for this pair
| English | Russian | |
|---|---|---|
| Apple on-device translation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deepgram cloud STT | ✓ | ✓ |
| iOS built-in voices | ✓ | ✓ |
| ElevenLabs premium voices (Plus) | 6 voices | 2 voices |
| Voice cloning (Plus, your voice) | ✓ | ✓ |
Why metcha for this pair
English and Russian don't share a script: Russian is written in Cyrillic and keeps a real grammatical line between formal вы and informal ты, a distinction literal translators often flatten. This pair lives mostly in families, Russian-speaking households in the US and UK where the grandparents speak Russian and the grandchildren answer in English. metcha lets everyone talk at the same table without one person translating for the rest.
Common phrases
Hand-picked phrases for everyday Russian-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.
Russian: Здравствуйте, приятно познакомиться.
- Thank you
-
English: Thank you very much.
Russian: Большое спасибо.
- Apology
-
English: Sorry, I don't understand.
Russian: Извините, я не понимаю.
- Directions
-
English: Where is the nearest metro station?
Russian: Где ближайшая станция метро?
- Ordering
-
English: What do you recommend?
Russian: Что вы посоветуете?
- Allergy
-
English: I'm allergic to nuts.
Russian: У меня аллергия на орехи.
- Bill
-
English: The bill, please.
Russian: Счёт, пожалуйста.
- Hotel
-
English: I have a reservation.
Russian: У меня забронирован номер.
- Pharmacy
-
English: Do you have something for a cold?
Russian: У вас есть что-нибудь от простуды?
- Help
-
English: Could you help me, please?
Russian: Вы не могли бы мне помочь?
Where you'd use it
- Multi-generation Russian-speaking families in the US and UK
- Travel where Russian is a lingua franca, from the Baltics to Central Asia
- Markets and small shops in Russian-speaking neighborhoods
- Russian-speaking congregations and community gatherings abroad For churches →
Common questions
- Does metcha translate Russian to English as well as English to Russian?
- Yes, both directions run in the same session. When someone speaks English, the other person hears it in Russian; when they reply in Russian, 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 ↔ Russian 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 Russian). 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 Russian?
- 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 Russian?
- metcha's Deepgram STT path handles major regional variants of Russian 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 Russian?
- 2 curated native-Russian 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.