HELP & FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What people ask about using the app, setting it up, privacy and technical details.

GENERAL USE

Screen Translate translates any text on your Android screen into another language in real time. The app:

•reads the text using OCR (optical character recognition)

•processes it quickly with Google ML Kit and TensorFlow GPU

•translates into 50+ languages (9 powerful translation engines)

•runs as an overlay on top of any app

OCR SOURCE LANGUAGES (50)

•English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese

•Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Russian

•Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Bengali, Persian, Urdu, Tamil

•Czech, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Slovak and more

TRANSLATION TARGET LANGUAGES (50+)

•All OCR languages + Arabic, Bengali, Dutch, Greek

•Hindi, Hungarian, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malay, Persian

•Polish, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Swahili, Tamil

•Thai, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese and more

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

•Android 7.0+ (API level 24)

•2 GB RAM recommended

•An internet connection for translation (Gemini, DeepL, Claude, ChatGPT, Groq, Azure), or offline ML Kit

•ARM64-v8a, ARMv7 or x86_64 architecture

Optimized for Android 15 and Android 16, with 16 KB page alignment support.

Manga mode (new in v4.2) is a translation mode built for manga and webtoon pages. It finds the speech balloons, reads the text inside them (including vertical Japanese) and translates the whole page in a single request; the translations are drawn over the balloons.

HOW TO START IT

•In the mode picker on the floating button, choose Manga

•Set the source language to Japanese / Chinese / Korean and the target language to your own

•Open your manga app — the translation appears as soon as the page is shown, and refreshes as you scroll

•On the free plan the minutes you spend translating are what counts; 10 minutes a day are free

For step-by-step instructions and screenshots, see How to Use › Manga mode .

Manga OCRis an optional extra text-recognition engine, trained only on Japanese manga balloons and running entirely on your device. On vertical Japanese and the handwriting-like fonts used in manga it is far more accurate than the standard engines. When you pick it in Settings › OCR Settings › OCR Engine, a one-time ~119 MB download starts (Wi-Fi recommended); it does not increase the size of the app itself.

WHICH LANGUAGES

•Japanese manga: Manga OCR is recommended — the balloon text is read on your device and never sent to the cloud

•Chinese manhua / Korean webtoons: Manga mode works with the standard engines (ML Kit, Azure OCR, Cloud Vision); Manga OCR does not support these languages and switches itself off when the page is not Japanese

•Removing it: Settings › Privacy and Data › Clear Translation Cache removes the model from your device; you can download it again whenever you like

•Requirements: Android 7.0+; 3–6 seconds per page on a mid-range phone

Manga OCR is based on the open-source manga-ocr model (Apache 2.0).

Travel mode uses the camera instead of the screen: you photograph a menu, a sign, a ticket or a document; the text is translated on top of the photo and the AI adds a short context note (what a dish is, a brief description of a historic place). The context note is AI-generated and may be wrong.

•On the home screen, tap the Travel Translate button (it is not in the mode picker)

•Grant the camera permission, line the text up with the focus frame and press the shutter

•You can change the target language from the language chip at the top, and share the result

•It is a Pro feature; it can also be used while your daily free minutes last

•Step 1 — Settings → Offline Languages → Language Packs

•Step 2 — find the language you want in the list (you can use the search box)

•Step 3 — press Download and watch the progress

Each language pack is about 10 MB. Downloading needs an internet connection, but once downloaded you can use it offline.

28 languages are available for offline ML Kit translation:

English, Turkish, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Czech, Ukrainian, Greek, Hebrew, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Malay, Persian.

Download these in advance for a full translation experience without an internet connection.

SETUP AND PERMISSIONS

REQUIRED PERMISSIONS

•Draw over other apps — required for the overlay interface

•Screen capture — to read the screen content for OCR

•Foreground service — so it can keep running in the background

•Notifications — to keep you informed

•Internet — for the translation APIs (optional)

•Camera — only in Travel Mode, when you take a photo

•Access to photos — only if you turn on Screenshot translation ; to read and translate the screenshot you just took. No image is ever uploaded or stored

•Accessibility — only for Chat Mode; optional, and you can switch it off

Every permission is used only for the app's core functions.

•Open the Google Play Store

•Search for "Screen Translate"

•Press "Install"

•Grant the required permissions

•Open the app and follow the setup instructions

•Download the app from Google Play

•Grant the required permissions on first launch

•Choose your source and target languages

•Configure the overlay settings

•Run a test translation to confirm it works

TROUBLESHOOTING

•Make sure the required permissions have been granted

•Check that your Android version is 7.0 or above

•Close the app completely and open it again

•Restart your device

•Check for updates in the Play Store

•If the problem persists, uninstall and reinstall the app

•Increase the screen brightness

•Make sure the text is sharp and large enough

•Check that the correct source language is selected

•Prefer simple fonts over decorative ones

•Use plain text rather than handwriting

•Make sure your internet connection is stable

•Check that the source text was recognized correctly

•Select the correct source and target languages

•Short, simple sentences translate better

•Double-check technical terms yourself

•Turn the overlay off when you are not using it

•Stop the background service

•Switch GPU acceleration off when you don't need it

•Disable notifications you don't need

•Exit from the settings to close the app completely

PRIVACY AND SECURITY

•OCR processing — ML Kit and Manga OCR run on your device; Cloud Vision / Azure OCR run in the cloud

•Translation options — ML Kit (100% local), Gemini · DeepL · Claude · ChatGPT · Groq · Azure (cloud, Pro)

•Translated text is never stored — what you translate is never recorded, only processed in the moment

•AdMob data collection — Google AdMob collects the Advertising ID and technical data to serve ads

•Sensitive data filtering — credit card numbers, phone numbers and similar data are filtered automatically

•AES-256 encryption — local settings and preferences are encrypted

•GDPR and KVKK compliant

A tip for privacy: for the highest level of privacy, use the ML Kit OCR + ML Kit offline translation combination. That setup runs entirely offline and no data leaves your device.

Whether you need the internet depends on the OCR and translation engines you choose:

•ML Kit OCR — works entirely offline

•Cloud Vision OCR — requires internet (50 languages)

•ML Kit translation — offline (28 languages)

•Gemini / Google Cloud translation — requires internet

•No translated text is ever stored

•100% free — the app itself costs nothing

•Google AdMob ads — used so the service can stay free

•Personalized ads — you can switch these off in the settings if you prefer

•Advertising ID — Google AdMob uses the device Advertising ID to serve ads

Note: to turn off personalized ads, go to your device's Settings → Google → Ads and enable "Opt out of Ads Personalisation".

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

ANDROID

Android 7.0+ (API 24–36)

Optimized for Android 15 and 16

AI TECHNOLOGY

ML Kit OCR + ONNX Runtime

On-device text recognition; Manga OCR model (optional)

PRIVACY

Local or cloud — your choice

Translated text is never stored

PERFORMANCE

GPU acceleration

Low latency, measured in milliseconds

Need more help?

If you couldn't find your issue here, get in touch with our support team.

info@screentranslate.com