Microsoft Translator Review

Meetings, made multilingual

The split screen, explained

① These three icons switch between the app's views. ② In split view, the top half shows the translation for the person you're talking to — the rotate button flips it upside down so it faces them across a table. ③ The bottom half is yours. ④ Two microphones, one for each language: press yours before you speak English, they press theirs before speaking Vietnamese. Nothing on the screen tells you which mic is which — you have to guess that they match the language buttons below. That's a real design mistake. ⑤ Typing, camera translation, and the language pair live at the bottom.

Single view: one screen, both languages

The middle icon switches to a simpler layout where both languages face you, right side up. Use it when you want to hand the phone to someone, or just want bigger text. Typing, speaking, and camera input all work the same here.

History: the app remembers everything

The third view is a list of everything you've ever translated, each with replay, share, and favorite buttons. Genuinely handy — tap play instead of retyping a phrase you use daily. But know that it all piles up here until you delete it, which matters if someone else picks up your phone.

The language list tells you what each language can do

Little icons next to each language show whether you can speak it into the mic and whether you can download it for offline use. Recent picks float to the top. There are over 100 languages — a lot, but well short of Google's 249. And since Microsoft shut down its group-conversation feature in June 2026, this app now only handles conversations between two people.