Translate with someone nearby

Before you begin

• Everyone needs Reverbot open on the Translate nearby screen: tap TRANSLATE in the top bar. Reverbot can only find phones that are running it.
• Turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and allow Local Network when iPhone asks. The phones connect to each other directly.
• Each phone needs an internet connection for translation, and translation available: free questions, a subscription or that person’s own Gemini or OpenAI key.
• If you haven’t agreed before, Before we start appears: turn on I’m 18 or older, then tap Agree and continue. What you say is sent to an AI to be translated.
• Each of you can wear your own headphones. Keep Reverbot open during the conversation: the screen stays on, and locking the phone or leaving the app can break the connection.

Your name and photo

1. Tap TRANSLATE in the top bar.
2. Your name card at the top shows what others see. Tap Edit. The Profile screen opens.
3. Under Name, enter the name people nearby see, up to 40 characters. Left blank, it uses your Reverbot username, or else your account name or the iPhone’s name.
4. Optional: Under Photo, tap Add a photo and choose one.
5. If you added a photo, turn on Show my photo. If not, choose a picture under Avatar.
6. Check How you appear at the top, then tap Done.

How you appear is exactly what the people you connect with see. Remove photo deletes the photo from this iPhone, but not a copy someone already received.

Find each other and connect

1. Both of you tap TRANSLATE in the top bar.
2. Under Your language, each of you sets I speak to your own language.
3. Wait for the other person to appear under Nearby, with the language they speak.
4. One of you taps Connect beside the other’s name. It reads “Connecting…” while it works; don’t tap again.
5. When the screen changes to Talking and shows “Live”, start talking.

I speak is the same setting as Translate to in Translate Vicinity and Translate 2-way. Changing it, or Group (more than two people), restarts the search.

Talk and follow the conversation

• Speak into your own phone, a sentence at a time, and pause between sentences. Your phone listens with Solo, so it favors your voice.
• Your phone translates what you say into each other person’s language and sends it to them. Theirs does the same for you.
• Their lines show the translation first, with their own words under it, and are read out to you. Your lines show what you said, with what they heard under it.
• While a line plays, a banner shows whose it is and how many are waiting.
• Tap Repeat at the bottom to hear the last line again.
• To finish, tap End at the top of the screen.

The bottom of the screen reads “Just talk — they hear you in their language.”, and “Translating…” while your sentence is on its way.

Talk in a group

1. Before anyone connects, each person who should be able to bring others in turns on Group (more than two people) under Your language.
2. Under Nearby, tap Add beside each person you want in the conversation.
3. Once you’re talking, anyone else in range appears beside Add, under the people at the top. Tap a name to bring them in.

With Group (more than two people) off, a phone connects to one person: it can join a group through someone else, but nobody can join through it. Each sentence you say is translated once for every other language in the group.

Answer questions in the conversation

On the Translate nearby screen, turn on Questions under Your language before you connect, or, once you’re talking, tap the Questions pill under the people; it shows On or Off. Reverbot then answers questions asked in the conversation, in your ear only: theirs once they’ve been read to you in your language, and yours once they’ve gone out. Each answer counts as a question, as any answer does.

Share your contact card

1. On the Translate nearby screen, tap Edit on your name card.
2. Under Contact card, tap Choose from Contacts and pick your card. My Card is at the top of the list.
3. Tap What they get and turn on anything you want to share beyond your name and phone numbers.
4. Tap Done.
5. In the conversation, tap Card at the bottom.
6. Check who it goes to, then tap Send my card.

Your card goes only to the people in the conversation, and only when you tap Card. They can tap Add to Contacts or Share. On the Profile screen, Show as QR code lets anyone save your card with their camera, without Reverbot, and Share card… sends it as a file.

Finish your profile

The Profile screen, opened with Edit on your name card, also holds:

• Username: how friends find you on Reverbot. You can change it once every 60 days, free, if the new one is available.
• Work: an optional Company and Job title, up to 60 characters each, shown under your name in nearby meetings and used by a meeting’s report to tell people apart.
• Avatar: a picture, color and initials font, used when Show my photo is off or there’s no photo.
• Friends: Friends see my name and Friends see my photo decide what your Reverbot friends see besides your username.

When you’re signed in, the same screen opens from Settings: under Profile, tap your name.

Messages and recording requests

During a nearby conversation:

• Messages appears under the people once someone sends you a message, for example from an AI Meeting’s room. Tap it to open the chat; the number shows how many are unread.
• If someone starts an AI Meeting with you in the conversation, a request appears on your phone, for example “Sam wants to record this meeting”. Tap I agree to be recorded and transcribed, or No. You can withdraw at any time with Withdraw, and the recording is deleted.
• If someone asks for your attention from their meeting screen, their name and photo appear over the conversation.

Change how it sounds

• The voice that reads other people’s lines: in Settings › Voice & Speed › Voice for each mode, under Translation, turn on Nearby (TRANSLATE) and choose a voice.
• Its speed: in Settings › Voice & Speed › Speed for each mode, turn on Nearby (TRANSLATE) the same way.
• The pause that ends your sentence: How long it waits in Two-way Language Translation settings, which TRANSLATE shares.
• I speak, Group (more than two people) and Questions are remembered for next time.

What leaves your iPhone

• The phones talk to each other directly, over an encrypted connection: your name, language, photo or avatar, work details, the translated lines and your contact card when you send it.
• What you say is sent over the internet to be translated: to Reverbot’s translation service, or to Google or OpenAI when you chose your own key for translation.
• Nothing of the conversation is kept: its lines and messages are cleared when it ends.
• Each sentence you say is translated once for each other language present. Before you subscribe, each translation uses one of your free questions; with a subscription, it comes from a daily allowance.

Note: An AI Meeting with people in the room keeps its own transcript and recording, under its own rules.

If it doesn’t work

• If nobody appears under Nearby, check that the other phone has Reverbot open on the Translate nearby screen. After a while a hint appears with Open Settings: check that Local Network is on for Reverbot.
• If an orange message appears instead of the search, turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
• If “Reconnecting…” appears, bring both phones back to Reverbot and keep them close. If the conversation ends, the reason shows on the Translate nearby screen; connect again.
• If you’re connected but nothing is translated, read the message at the bottom, such as “Couldn’t reach translation — check your connection.” or “You’ve used your free questions — subscribe to keep translating.”, which comes with Subscribe. A subscriber can see “That’s all the translation for today — it comes back tomorrow.”
• If it reads “You all speak English — nothing to translate.”, everyone chose the same language under I speak.
• If it reads “Reverbot can’t hear you — allow Microphone and Speech Recognition in Settings.”, turn both on in iPhone Settings, under Apps › Reverbot.

Still not working? In Settings, under Feedback, tap Report a Bug and describe what you did, what you expected and what happened.