How to Use Screen Translate
Translate any text on your screen in real time — games, chats, comics, apps.
🚀 Quick Start
📌 The Floating Menu Bar
The menu bar floats on your screen at all times — the app’s control center. It only hides briefly during capture (while you hold the pointer) and while a translation window is on screen. It does more than most people realize:
- Detect-mode icon (left) — switch between Word / Sentence / Paragraph / Select Area / Fixed Area.
- Source language — Auto detects it for you; tap to pin a specific language instead. Languages whose screen text can’t be read yet are greyed out.
- ⇄ Swap — flip source and target with one tap.
- Target language — tap to pick from 110+ languages.
- Engine icon (right) — tap to switch the translation engine: Google, DeepL, GPT, Gemini, Claude.
The bar can be dragged anywhere. If you rarely switch these options and the bar feels in the way, adjust its transparency and layout in Settings — or hide it entirely with Show menu bar.
🎯 Five Translation Modes
Switch modes with the detect-mode icon on the floating menu bar.
Word
Point at a single word to translate just that word. Great for language learning — includes tap-to-hear pronunciation (TTS).
Sentence
Point anywhere in a sentence to translate the whole sentence. The most popular mode for chats and social media.
Paragraph
Point at a block of text to translate the entire paragraph at once — ideal for articles and documents.
Select Area
Drag to draw a box around exactly what you want translated. Perfect when the layout is busy.
Fixed Area for games & subtitles
Pin a region of the screen — the app re-translates it automatically whenever its content changes. Made for game dialogue and video subtitles.
🌐 Languages
110+ languages. The source language is detected automatically; pick the target language from the menu bar. Swap them any time.
Screen text is read right on your phone. Supported scripts: Latin (English, Spanish, French, Vietnamese…), Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Devanagari (Hindi, Marathi, Nepali…) and — new in version 2.8 — Arabic script (Arabic, Persian, Urdu…), Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian and Thai. Languages in other scripts, such as Greek, Hebrew or Tamil, can still be chosen as the target language, but can’t be read from the screen yet.
🤖 AI Translation (optional)
The built-in Google engine is free and needs no setup. Prefer AI translation? Connect your own API key:
- DeepL — free tier available at deepl.com
- OpenAI (GPT) — key from the OpenAI dashboard
- Gemini — free tier via Google AI Studio
- Claude — key from the Anthropic Console
Menu bar → translation engine → choose an engine → paste your key. Usage is billed to your account with that provider; the app adds no markup.
OpenAI, Gemini and Claude have extra options on their key pages (Settings → API Key). Pick the Model. Context sends the surrounding text (nearby sentences or the whole screen) so pronouns and ambiguous words come out right. Translation style sets how closely to follow the original (literal, natural or liberal), and Subject tunes the wording for games, comics, technical or business text.
If a translation fails, the app shows the reason right on screen — invalid API key, out-of-credit account, rate limit, or network error. Note: a valid key alone is not enough — the provider account also needs credit or an active free tier.
🔊 Read-Aloud & TTS Voices
The app can read text aloud: tap the speaker icon on a translation, or turn on Auto read-aloud in Settings. The Read target setting chooses whether the original text or the translation is read.
Pick a voice under Settings → TTS voice: voices are grouped by language, and tapping one plays a short preview so you can compare before you choose.
💬 Replying in Chats
Translated a chat message? Tap the reply icon at the bottom right of the translation window, then type your answer in your own language — it is instantly translated into the other person’s language.
Tap copy, paste it into the chat, and send. You can hold a whole conversation without ever leaving the chat app.
❓ FAQ & Troubleshooting
The floating bubble disappeared
Open the app again to restart the service. If it keeps happening, check that Display over other apps is still allowed, and exclude the app from battery optimization (Settings → Battery → Unrestricted).
First translation is slow or says “preparing”
Recognition models are downloaded once. The main OCR model comes through Google Play services on first use, and the models for Arabic-script, Cyrillic and Thai text are downloaded right after you install or update the app — until then, those languages can’t be read. After that, recognition works offline.
Translation takes a while on Auto
With the source language on Auto, the app first checks which text recognizer fits the screen, which takes a little longer — especially for Arabic-script, Cyrillic and Thai text. If you mostly read one language, choose it as the source language on the menu bar for faster results.
Nothing happens on some screens
Apps that block screenshots (banking apps, DRM video players) can’t be captured — Android hides their content from every capture app.
Why do I see an ad?
One short ad per session keeps every core feature free. After the ad, the app stays completely ad-free until you close it.
A ⚠ message says the translation failed
The message tells you why. Invalid API key: re-check the key in Settings. Out of credit: top up on the provider’s console — a valid key still needs credit. Rate limit: wait a moment and retry. Network error: check your connection.
Translation quality seems off
Try the Sentence or Paragraph mode (more context = better translation), or connect an AI engine (DeepL/GPT/Gemini/Claude) for the best quality.
How do I see the on-screen tips again?
Open Settings and tap How to Use. Along with opening this guide, it resets the tips, so they show again as you use the app.
💻 Source Code
The full source code of Screen Translate is on GitHub, under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0. You are welcome to study it, modify it and share it for personal and other noncommercial purposes. Commercial use — for example, publishing a modified version with ads or in-app purchases — needs our permission; ask through a GitHub issue.
📮 Still stuck?
Email us at handwritingdictionary@gmail.com — we read everything.
Get it on Google Play