Speaker (German)
Hallo, Sie sind neu im Haus, oder? Ich wohne gleich nebenan.
Здравствуйте, вы ведь недавно в нашем доме? Я живу по соседству.
Hallo Привет
Live translation
German ↔ Russian
through one pair of earbuds.
Share an earbud. Pick German and Russian. Each of you hears the other in your own language, live.
A sample exchange
Three turns between German and Russian, the way they'd actually go. Each card shows the original line above the translation.
Speaker (Russian)
Да, мы въехали на прошлой неделе. Приятно с вами познакомиться.
Ja, wir sind letzte Woche eingezogen. Freut mich, Sie kennenzulernen.
Speaker (German)
Wenn Sie etwas brauchen, klingeln Sie einfach bei mir.
Если вам что-то понадобится, просто позвоните мне в дверь.
What metcha supports for this pair
| German | Russian | |
|---|---|---|
| Apple on-device translation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deepgram cloud STT | ✓ | ✓ |
| iOS built-in voices | ✓ | ✓ |
| ElevenLabs premium voices (Plus) | 4 voices | 2 voices |
| Voice cloning (Plus, your voice) | ✓ | ✓ |
Why metcha for this pair
Germany is home to one of the largest Russian-speaking communities in Western Europe, several million people including the families who resettled after 1990. The pair sits across a script divide, Latin against Cyrillic, but both languages keep a real formal register (Sie and вы) that metcha respects in service settings. And because this is a non-English pair, metcha's Better Translation path on metcha Plus translates directly between German and Russian instead of pivoting through English.
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
-
German: Hallo, guten Tag.
Russian: Здравствуйте, добрый день.
- Thank you
-
German: Vielen Dank.
Russian: Большое спасибо.
- Apology
-
German: Entschuldigung, ich verstehe nicht.
Russian: Извините, я не понимаю.
- Directions
-
German: Wie komme ich zum Bahnhof?
Russian: Как пройти к вокзалу?
- Ordering
-
German: Was können Sie empfehlen?
Russian: Что вы посоветуете?
- Allergy
-
German: Ich bin allergisch gegen Nüsse.
Russian: У меня аллергия на орехи.
- Bill
-
German: Die Rechnung, bitte.
Russian: Счёт, пожалуйста.
- Hotel
-
German: Ich habe eine Reservierung.
Russian: У меня забронирован номер.
- Pharmacy
-
German: Haben Sie etwas gegen Husten?
Russian: У вас есть что-нибудь от кашля?
- Help
-
German: Können Sie mir bitte helfen?
Russian: Вы не могли бы мне помочь?
Where you'd use it
- Neighborhood life in Berlin, Cologne, and the Ruhr, where Russian is heard daily
- Appointments at offices, banks, and doctors with Russian-speaking residents
- Families where the grandparents speak Russian and the grandchildren answer in German
- Russian-speaking congregations meeting in German towns For churches →
Common questions
- Does metcha translate Russian to German as well as German to Russian?
- Yes, both directions run in the same session. When someone speaks German, the other person hears it in Russian; when they reply in Russian, you hear it in German. There is no direction to configure and no turn-taking button. See how it works for the full walkthrough.
- Is German ↔ 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 German 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 German 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.