October 29, 2025 — 5:00am
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It’s difficult to imagine travel before the age of flight. I can’t even picture how long, arduous and frankly impossible many journeys were for potential adventurers when one had to set sail in a boat and maybe never come back.
But then the Wright brothers figured out how to fly, and the world changed. Mass tourism became a possibility and then a reality.
Instant live translation via AirPods will change the nature of travel as much as smartphones have.
Smartphones changed travel just as significantly. And Wi-Fi. The ability to be always connected, always in control. To have access to all the world’s knowledge, its most up-to-date information at all times from a little gadget in your pocket. Incredible.
And now, we might just be on the cusp of something similarly revolutionary, something new that will change the travel experience forever.
Apple recently announced a new feature on its iPhones and connected AirPods: live translation, in which you put the AirPods in your ears, listen to someone speak in a foreign language, and have that conversation translated in real time for you.
Essentially, this technology will give travellers the ability to understand and converse in every language in the world. There will be no language barrier any more. That entire notion will become a thing of the past.
Rashida Jones’ (left) character in Sunny has Japanese translated into English through an earpiece.Apple TV+
Even just a year ago, this was the stuff of sci-fi fever dreams. Apple itself, via its television production arm, released a TV series in 2024 called Sunny, starring Rashida Jones as an American living in Kyoto in a semi-dystopian future.
In the show, Jones’ character, Suzie, moves through Japan wearing an earpiece connected to a small box, which allows her to hear the Japanese being spoken around her in English. It’s a neat trick (which allowed Jones to avoid speaking Japanese), but one that seemed far-fetched.
That show was released in July last year. A little more than 12 months later, that futuristic technology has become reality.
Apple’s live translation is still in its Beta form and far from perfect. To use it, you will need an iPhone 15 Pro or later model, you will need to download the clunky iOS 26 or later, and have AirPods Pro 2, Pro 3 or AirPods 4.
We live in the future now; the language barrier will be a thing of the past.
You can also put your Sunny dreams on hold: live translation is only available now for French, German, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish (Spain). They are four languages that, to be honest, are not that difficult to navigate on your own, and spoken by people who will probably speak some English anyway. The tech is also buggy and difficult to set up.
But it works. Real-time conversations in a foreign language. The AI-driven translator gets some words wrong, and in conversations I’ve had with Spanish-speaking friends it can struggle to differentiate and accurately translate when more than one person is talking at the same time (which, in Spain in particular, tends to happen quite often). The robotic voice that feeds you the translations can also be a little off-putting.
And when you want to speak back, you either have to rely on the other person also having this same technology (which right now they almost certainly won’t), or rely on them being prepared to read a translation of what you are saying as it appears written on your phone (which they may not want to do).
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So it’s not ideal. You have to remember though that this is the Beta version, and the technology will improve. New languages will be added too, meaning that in the not-too-distant future you will be able to travel through Japan, China, Latin America, the Middle East and many more places and have real-time conversations with locals in a language you don’t speak.
This, clearly, is a game-changer for travel. Nothing will ever be the same again. All those moments of confusion, those feelings of helplessness and powerlessness, will be the same as getting lost with your paper map, or spending three months on a ship to get to your holiday destination: a thing of the past.
You do have to ask yourself though, whether you actually want this. Yes, we can do it – but should we? Will travel be better without the language barrier?
We will lose something beautiful. That feeling of making yourself understood in another language, of forcing yourself to understand someone else, forcing yourself to dig into their culture and know a bit more about who these people are through the language they speak. For that to be lost will be a sad thing.
The Basque Country in Spain, where the local language is everything.Alamy Stock PhotoRelated Article
Language is identity. It’s a source of passion and pride. I lived for a while in Spain’s Basque Country, and I can tell you that the Basque language, Euskara, is everything to Basque people. Those who take the time to understand that, and learn even a few basic words and phrases, are warmly welcomed. Far more so than someone saying, “Hola!”
With live translations though, travellers will be even lazier than they are now. There’s no need to learn any languages, just as there’s no need to memorise directions or phone numbers, when you have the key to the world in your pocket.
Not that these reservations will hold it back. Technological advancements become part of our world whether we like it or not, without your even realising it. This will catch on.
Because the travel world has changed forever, as it did with cars and planes and those first smartphones. We live in the future now; the language barrier will be a thing of the past.
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Ben Groundwater is a Sydney-based travel writer, columnist, broadcaster, author and occasional tour guide with more than 25 years’ experience in media, and a lifetime of experience traversing the globe. He specialises in food and wine – writing about it, as well as consuming it – and at any given moment in time Ben is probably thinking about either ramen in Tokyo, pintxos in San Sebastian, or carbonara in Rome. Follow him on Instagram @bengroundwaterConnect via email.From our partners
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