Talk To Locals

Instead of asking you to type or hold a screen up to someone's face, Talk To Locals keeps the conversation hands-free. The app listens to whoever is speaking, translates the speech, and plays it back out loud in the listener's language. The stated goal is smooth, back-and-forth dialogue in taxis, hotels, restaurants, shops and border crossings, where a single misunderstanding can derail the moment.

The service advertises support for a broad set of languages, roughly 40 and up, including widely spoken ones such as English, French, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese. It also keeps track of the flow of a conversation rather than translating isolated sentences, which helps the exchange feel more natural. Pricing is usage based: you buy minutes and spend them as you talk, without a mandatory subscription.

Note that the official site currently shows a notice that new sign-ups are closed and that purchases are not possible at the moment, while existing users can still sign in and use their remaining minutes. That makes the app best suited to people who already have an account and a minute balance, or who want to keep an eye on the service for when enrolment reopens.