Hear the Sermon Spoken in Your Language

Hear the sermon spoken in Korean, a few seconds behind the preacher

Listen mode is Live mode with a voice: every finished sentence is read aloud in the listener's language on their own earphones, while the captions stay on screen and John 3:16 opens in the bilingual Bible panel.

Screen recording from the real app, with captions and a written description.

1. Listen mode is recording, with English as the spoken language and Korean as the language to hear.
2. The pastor says, "Good morning, church. Open your Bibles with me, to John chapter 3, verse 16." The English caption follows about half a second behind him.
3. The finished Korean sentence is read aloud on the listener's earphones while the pastor continues; the voice bar shows the sentence being spoken.
4. The pastor quotes John 3:16 in full, and each finished Korean sentence is spoken once, one at a time, a few seconds behind him.
5. John 3:16 is detected and the bilingual Bible panel opens with the chapter in English and Korean.

How Listen mode works

Choose the language being spoken and the language you want to hear, pick where the voice should play, and press Start. Every finished sentence is spoken once, one at a time, a few seconds after the preacher says it. If the voice falls a little behind, it reads a touch faster to catch up; only when it is far behind does it skip ahead, and the captions still show every line.

Earphones, headphones or a Bluetooth speaker

On Chrome, Edge and Android, pick the output device inside the app and the voice goes there while the microphone keeps listening to the room. On an iPhone or iPad the voice plays through whatever the phone is connected to, chosen in Control Center, such as AirPods or a Bluetooth speaker, because iOS does not let a web page choose the output itself. Wear earphones so the microphone does not hear the voice.

• Headphones are required: Listen mode plays the translation out loud, so put in earbuds or headphones before you press Start, or the microphone will hear the voice and the room will too.

Read aloud in a natural voice on your phone

Sentences are read by the natural voice built into your phone or browser, the same one the phone uses for directions and screen reading, in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Farsi and every other caption language the phone has a voice for. It starts at once, costs nothing extra, and you can pick a different installed voice in the Listen bar. Churches on a paid plan can also switch on Premium voice in Settings, which reads 32 languages with studio-quality voices from our server and hands back to the phone voice for the rest, so speech never silently stops.

What it costs in hours

A spoken sentence uses plan time for the seconds it takes to say, settled against the same session as the microphone. An hour of Listen mode where the preacher never pauses uses about two hours of plan time, one for the recording and about one for the voice; with the voice muted it uses one. There is no separate voice fee. The free monthly hour covers Listen mode like every other mode.

Who it is for

A member who cannot read the caption language, an elderly parent who follows better by ear, someone with low vision, or a visitor in the back row who wants the sermon in one ear while the room hears the preacher.

Does Listen mode work on an iPhone?

Yes. The voice plays through the device the iPhone is connected to, chosen in Control Center: the phone speaker, wired earphones, AirPods or a Bluetooth speaker. iOS does not let a web page choose the output itself, so the picker inside the app appears on Chrome, Edge and Android.

Does the voice fall behind the preacher?

Each sentence is spoken after it has been translated, so the voice runs a few seconds behind the speaker. It never plays two sentences at once. If it falls a little behind it reads slightly faster to catch up; only a sentence that has waited more than about eight seconds, with newer ones behind it, is skipped so the voice stays close to live, and the app shows how many were skipped.

How do churches translate sermons live with this app?

The speaker opens Sermon Translate on a phone, tablet or laptop, selects the spoken language and the translation language, and starts listening. Transcripts and translations appear on that device, and the whole room can read them as captions on a projector or livestream. No headsets, no interpreter booth, no extra hardware.

Which languages are supported?

Sermon Translate supports 123 languages. 61 of them can be spoken from the pulpit, including English, Traditional Chinese, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Vietnamese and 53 more, and all 123 can be read as captions. Every listener can pick their own reading language. The full list is on the languages page.

How is this different from Google Translate or generic AI translation apps?

Google Translate is a powerful general-purpose translator. Sermon Translate is designed around the workflow of a Christian service: church vocabulary, hymn titles, proper names, Bible book names, and verse-reference popups that appear when the speaker clearly references a passage.

Do we need to install anything?

No. It runs in a modern browser on iPhone, Android and desktop. The speaker opens it on one device, and the congregation reads the captions on the projector or livestream. Anyone who wants captions on their own phone opens Sermon Translate there and signs in; each listener needs their own account or trial after the free period.

Can it replace a human interpreter?

Sermon Translate works as a sermon interpreter app for live services and handles common preaching vocabulary well. A church can use it as the main translation for weekly services, or alongside a human interpreter for rare languages or high-stakes events. It is a tool, not a person.