Apple features

This help describes AI Video Translator 1.39.0. If you are helping someone and do not know which version they use, ask them to open Settings → About App and read App Version (for example 1.39.0+3; use the part before +). Help for another version: https://aivideotranslator.app/docs/<version>/llms-full.txt (replace <version>; the list of published versions is in https://aivideotranslator.app/llms.txt)

You can use Apple's built-in speech recognition, translation and voices in the Mac app. They run on your Mac, so you don't need an API key or external-service consent.

Check your Mac

You'll need an Apple Silicon Mac, M1 or later, with macOS 15 or later. The app won't run on an Intel Mac.

To use Apple speech recognition or either Apple translator, you'll need macOS 26 or later. You can use Apple system voices from macOS 15.

For Apple's language-model translator, you'll also need Apple Intelligence turned on and ready on an eligible Mac. If you're on an older supported macOS, you can still use downloadable models or cloud providers.

Choose an Apple provider

Under Apple (on-device), you can choose speech recognition, two translators or installed system voices. You don't download their models through the app, but their macOS resources must be ready.

• Apple Speech Transcriber writes down speech.
• Apple Foundation Models translates with the Apple Intelligence language model.
• Apple Translation uses the system translator.
• System Voices reads text with installed Apple voices.

You can also ask an assistant to control the app's processing. Local MCP assistant explains how to connect one and what access it gets.

Understand new-project defaults

Your new project uses Apple recognition if you're on macOS 26 or later and it supports your source language. Otherwise, you start with the local Whisper Base model.

Your project starts with Apple's language-model translator if Apple Intelligence is ready and both languages are supported. Otherwise, it uses local Gemma 4 E2B; you can choose Apple Translation yourself.

For voices, the app first looks for a downloadable on-device voice. If none supports your target language, it uses an installed Apple voice.

You can change any of these defaults in your project settings.

Install speech resources

To use Apple recognition, you'll need to choose the source language. macOS installs any missing speech resources, so you won't find them in “Manage Models”.

1. Choose the spoken source language in project settings.
2. Start transcription.
3. If “Model Download Required” appears, choose “Download”.

macOS downloads and looks after these resources. Once you start the installation, you can't cancel it.

If Apple speech recognition is unavailable, you can continue with another speech provider. If just the language resources are unavailable, starting transcription again offers you their download again.

Apple recognition doesn't work out who's speaking by itself. If you turn on “Speaker Diarization”, the app uses its local detection and downloads two small support models the first time.

Translate with Apple Intelligence

You can guide Apple's language-model translator with “About project”, “Glossary” and “Terms”. It translates groups of segments, and you'll need to choose the source language.

macOS supplies the model through Apple Intelligence; you can't download it through the app. If it isn't ready, Apple Intelligence unavailable explains what you can check.

Apple's content safeguards can refuse to translate some lines. If you see “The model declined to translate some lines.”, you can translate those lines yourself or use another provider.

Install Apple Translation languages

For Apple Translation, you'll need both your source and target languages installed in macOS. You install them in System Settings, because the app can't do it for you.

1. Open macOS System Settings.
2. Open General.
3. Open Language & Region.
4. Open Translation Languages.
5. Download the source language.
6. Download the target language.
7. Try translation again.

Apple Translation can't use your project context, glossary or terms. If you've filled in those fields, you'll need to empty them or choose another translator.

Use Apple voices

In System Voices, you'll find installed Apple voices that speak your project's target language, under their system names. Each Apple voice speaks one language and region. You won't see Personal Voice, older MacinTalk voices, novelty voices or third-party voices.

1. Open the project's “General” tab.
2. In the speaker table, choose Apple (on-device).
3. Choose System Voices.
4. Choose a voice.

If you want more or better voices, you can install them in macOS System Settings, then reopen project settings to refresh the list. The app doesn't download them; Voices and speakers explains how to assign them to people in your video.

If a voice you've saved disappears, you'll see an “Unavailable” badge on its row. When you generate speech, the app asks you to choose another voice so you decide what replaces it.

If you change the target language, your saved voice stays selected with a warning if it can't speak that language. If no installed voice can speak the target language, the Voice menu says so. Install a compatible voice or choose another provider.

Know what stays on your Mac

When you use these Apple processing features, your text, audio and generated speech stay on your Mac. The app doesn't use Apple's server-side processing options for them.

You download from Apple when you approve speech-resource installation or install system languages and voices. macOS also manages Apple Intelligence resources; the privacy policy explains these downloads.

Search Help

You can search the English Help pages offline on Mac and Windows. If Apple Intelligence is ready on your Mac, you can also get a short answer based on the matching passages.

1. Choose the question-mark button to open “Help”.
2. Enter English words in “Your question”.
3. Choose “Search” or press Return.

Under “Answer from the help”, you can open numbered sources to read more. If the model isn't available, you'll still see matching passages.

Below the results, you'll see “Didn't find it? Ask your AI assistant”. You can copy its prompt, which includes your app version and question, into your own AI chat.

In Shortcuts, Search AI Video Translator help gives you matching text to pass to another action. On macOS 27 or later, you can also ask Siri to search Help and open the panel with your question.

The app doesn't save, log or send us your Help questions or answers. If you copy a prompt to an assistant, its own terms govern how it handles that content.

Start a translation in Shortcuts

You can start translating a video or audio file with Translate video, which returns a job straight away. It accepts a file from an earlier action; you start video translation through Shortcuts, rather than a Siri translation command.

1. In Shortcuts, add Translate video.
2. Give it a video or audio file.
3. Choose the target language.
4. For Apple Speech Transcriber, set Source language to the spoken language.
5. Run the Shortcut.
6. In the app, finish any startup dialogs.

For an English-to-German video, choose English as Source language and German as the target. You can use the defaults without filling in every optional setting.

The app runs the translation, so you don't need to select a project first. You can minimize the window while it works.

If you quit during work, you'll see “Processing is running — quit and stop it?”. Choosing “Keep processing” leaves the app running; if you confirm quitting, it stops work and marks unfinished jobs interrupted when you reopen it.

Choose Shortcut models and voices

You start with the new-project defaults unless you choose a different provider, model or voice in Shortcuts. The app checks that your choices work before accepting a job; it won't quietly switch models if a choice is invalid.

1. To override a step, choose its provider.
2. Choose that provider's model.
3. For voices, choose the target language.
4. Choose the speech-generation provider.
5. Choose its model.
6. Choose the voice.

If Apple voices share a name, you'll see their language and region so you can tell them apart. If the Voice menu stays empty, you can close and reopen the editor, then choose again.

You'll need a source language before Apple recognition can start. You may see its model before choosing the language, but the app still reports an error if that language isn't supported.

On macOS 27, if a required choice is missing, you get an error straight away instead of a picker during the run. If choices aren't loading promptly, finish the app's startup dialogs before trying again.

Before it starts, the app checks access to your file, installed models, credentials, consent and support for your language and voice. You'll need to set up models and cloud consent in the app; a Shortcut can't grant consent.

You may see saved choices during startup, but the app still checks they're ready before accepting work. If it says translation is still starting, your request already reached the app; check the jobs before you start another.

Check or retrieve a job

You can see progress with Check translation and retrieve the finished file with Get translated video. If you pass the job from Translate video, both actions refer to that same work.

1. Connect the Translate video job output to Check translation or Get translated video.
2. For a specific earlier job, choose Translation job in the editor.

If you don't choose a job, these actions use the known job added most recently, rather than the one updated most recently. The dialog shows its job ID so you can tell which one it used.

If the action doesn't know about any jobs, it asks you to start one. If it only has older entries with no recorded order, it asks you to select a job in the editor.

In the job menu, you can see the source filename, target language, state and date/time. That date is when the app first recorded the job for Shortcuts; older entries may have no date.

Cancel a Shortcut translation

With Cancel translation, you stop the selected job without a confirmation. If you haven't selected one, it only cancels when exactly one known job is active.

1. If several jobs are active, select Translation job in the editor.
2. Run Cancel translation.

If no job is active, the action tells you nothing is running. It won't ask you to pick a job during the run; you can use Shortcuts' Ask Before Running if you want a guard.

Wait for a finished file

You can get the finished file from a single action with Translate video and wait. If you cancel the wait, translation keeps running; use Cancel translation to stop the job.

You'll get one saved file in Downloads, named with the source name, target language and a unique identifier. The result dialog tells you its actual path and any warnings.

Both Get translated video and Translate video and wait return that same saved file to later actions. You can find it with Show in Finder, and the app keeps access while Shortcuts uses it.

If you keep the file there, you can retrieve it from its job later. Its extension matches the format the app exported.

Understand Shortcut limits

With a free Shortcut job, you can translate and make voices for the whole project. The export keeps the video's full length but dubs only the first 10 segments; after those, you'll hear silence because these jobs replace the original audio.

You'll see the allowance when the job is accepted and when you get the result. If you've allowed notifications for AI Video Translator in macOS System Settings, the completion notification tells you too.

Both translation actions offer Full dub required, which starts off. If you turn it on and the transcript exceeds the free allowance, the job stops before translating or making voices, though you may already have paid for transcription.

With Premium, you can dub every segment. You still pay any cloud-provider charges separately.

Protect keys and assistant data

Your cloud API keys stay in Mac Keychain, outside settings and projects. You don't need a key for Apple's local providers.

Shortcuts receives your choices, status, file paths and returned file under Apple's terms, and Siri can receive Help passages. Choosing local processing doesn't change your assistant's privacy terms.

Technical details

For recognition, the app uses SpeechTranscriber; for language-model translation, it uses Foundation Models; and for Apple Translation, it uses the Translation framework. It doesn't use Private Cloud Compute for these features.

Shortcuts orders jobs by the native cache's creationOrder, rather than progress updates. It treats unordered legacy entries as older than ordered ones; if all entries are unordered, you must select a job explicitly.

You get the same job ID across action outputs. For Shortcuts exports, the filename contains _translated_, the target-language code and request identifier, with the actual exported extension.

Shortcuts actions follow the same app-owned job, consent and export rules as MCP. Even if you see cached options, the app still runs admission checks; those options don't grant consent.