You order in English. The waiter answers in Portuguese. The translation surfaces in your line of sight exactly when he speaks. You don't pass a phone back and forth. You look at him. He looks at you. Neither of you ever forgets the conversation.

Why it matters

The translator app you have on your phone works. It also kills the conversation it's translating — you pass the device back and forth, you read instead of listen, the rhythm dies. A quiet translator that lets you stay in the conversation is a different category.

How it works

One feature, two modes — pick whichever fits the moment.

TRANSLATION MODE is one-way, passive listen-in. Someone speaks another language; the translation appears in your line of sight, exactly as they speak — only you see it. Ideal for lectures, podcasts, listening to a guide on a tour, or hearing your in-laws discuss something across a holiday table. You follow along without anyone knowing you needed help.

BILINGUAL MODE is two-way and shared. You place your phone on the table between you and the person you're speaking with — both languages appear on the phone screen as each of you speaks, so the conversation moves freely back and forth. Ideal for meetings, ordering food, asking directions, the real conversations where both sides need to read each other.

Twenty-six languages at launch: English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Hindi, Indonesian, Swedish, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay, Filipino, Khmer, Lao, Turkish, Dutch, Polish, Ukrainian, Greek, and Bengali. More added as the underlying models improve.

Three moments

• Travel                     A taxi driver in Tokyo tells you about his daughter in Japanese — Translation mode, English in your line of sight, you read along without breaking his flow.
• Across the table     Dinner with someone who doesn't speak your language. Flip to Bilingual mode — phone between you on the table, both languages on screen, no awkward handoffs.
• Family                     Your grandmother's stories in her village dialect, captioned in your own language while she talks — Translation mode, all evening.

Getting started

Assign Translation to one of your three shortcut slots in the MemoMind app. Set your default languages and your default mode (Translation or Bilingual). Double-click the button on your temple to launch — you can switch between modes once you're in. (Or just say "Hi Memo, translate this" for one-way Translation mode.)