How to translate messages in WhatsApp

guides Jan 25, 2021

WhatsApp is where a lot of us talk to family, colleagues and landlords abroad. When the conversation is in a language you do not speak well, the flow breaks: you copy a message, leave the app, paste it somewhere, read it, come back. Here is how to keep the conversation in one place.

Translate a message you received

Mate for iPhone and iPad plugs into iOS itself, so it works inside WhatsApp rather than next to it. There are three routes, and which one you use depends on what WhatsApp lets you select.

Select and tap Translate. On iOS 18.4 and later you can make Mate your default translator. Press and hold the message, select the text, and tap Translate. Mate opens over WhatsApp with the translation; swipe down and you are back in the chat. Set it up once in Mate's Settings under Integrations > Default Translator.
Share. Select the text, tap Share, then Translate with Mate. This works on any iOS version.
Copy, then Paste and Translate. Chat apps often let you copy a whole message but not select part of it. Copy it as usual, then press and hold Mate's icon on the Home Screen and tap Paste and Translate. Mate opens with the clipboard already translated.

For voice notes, stickers and screenshots there is the camera: open Mate, switch to Camera, tap Pick a photo, and choose the screenshot. Mate recognises the text and lays the translation over it.

Write your reply in their language

Type your reply in Mate in your own language and copy the translation into WhatsApp. Two settings make the result sound less like a machine:

Switch the translation style to Advanced or AI. Both handle everyday, informal writing much better than the Basic style.
Set Tone to informal for friends and formal for work, in languages that distinguish the two. German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian and Japanese all do.

Advanced, AI and the tone control are part of Mate Pro; the Basic style is free and covers all 248 languages.

Build a Phrasebook for the conversations you repeat

If you have the same kind of exchange every week, stop translating it every week. After a translation, open the card's menu and choose Add to Phrasebook, then create a list called "WhatsApp" or name it after the person. Each list has a fixed language pair.

Open the Library screen to review the list later. With Mate Pro and sync on, the same Phrasebook is on your Mac and in your browser extension too, and the browser extension can export it as a CSV file if you want to drill it in a flashcard app. See Phrasebook: save and organize words you want to remember.

Say hello without a translator

Greetings are the easiest thing to memorise and they set the tone for everything after. The first line under each language is the polite form, the second is what you would use with a friend.

Portuguese — Olá / Oi
Danish — Goddag / Hej, Halløj
Dutch — Goedendag / Hoi, Hallo
Hebrew — Shalom / Hey
Swahili — Shikamoo / Habari, Hujambo
Hindi — Namaste, Namaskar / Hai, Helo
French — Bonjour / Salut
Swedish — God dag / Hej, Tjena
Arabic — Asalaam alaikum / Ahlan
Greek — Yassas / Yassou
Indonesian — Selamat siang / Halo
Chinese — Nín hǎo / Nǐ hǎo
German — Guten Tag / Hallo, Hi
Russian — Zdravstvuyte / Privet
Spanish — Hola / ¿Qué tal?
Polish — Dzień dobry / Cześć, Witaj
Korean — Annyeong haseyo / Annyeong
Turkish — Merhaba / Selam
Italian — Salve / Ciao
Japanese — Konnichiwa / Yā, Yō

Tap the speaker button on any translation in Mate to hear how it should sound, and turn on phonetic transcription if you want the IPA under the word.

If you are sending someone an article they cannot read, translate the page before you quote from it. Mate's extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Opera, and the Safari extension in Mate for Mac, translate a whole page in place: right-click and choose Translate this page, or click Translate to English in the bar Mate shows. Then copy the paragraphs you want into WhatsApp.

This is also handy when you use WhatsApp Web or the desktop app in a browser tab: select any message on the page and press Shift+T.

One subscription, every device

Mate runs on Mac, iPhone, iPad and in Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Opera, and a single Mate Pro subscription covers all of them. History and Phrasebook follow your account, so a phrase you saved on the phone is there on the laptop. There is no native Android or Windows app; on those systems use the browser extension or the online translator.