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submitted 2 days ago by Osm@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

I'm looking for a robust translation app that respect privacy and doesn't collect user data or send text to servers.

I've tried a few options, but I'd like to hear about your experiences: What do you actually use?

Thanks in advance 🙏

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[-] DrunkAnRoot@sh.itjust.works 1 points 26 minutes ago

I run libretranslate and used to run mozhi both are good and you can find mobile clients on fdroid

[-] Spite_By_Design_LLC@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

I believe Firefox allows you to point your local LLM (that you self host) as the "ai assistant", so that when you click translate, your own machine (localhost) does the work. I've found the Qwen3 series models (Qwen3-4B) to have been quite capable at translation; I imagine the newer ones are even better.

[-] Mwa@thelemmy.club 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

IIRC On Firefox Desktop (or any forks of it) there is a built in translation tool,
You can also prompt engineer local LLMS into translating text for you.

[-] SavarosaCraft@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

I wanted to be the funny person to answer with: the dictionary.
But aside of the bad joke, I want to say thanks for the question and thanks for all the answers in this thread!

I wasn't thinking about this as privacy concern (while obviously is), and I am really happy to see this issue is already solved several different ways!

[-] slazer2au@lemmy.world 37 points 2 days ago

I use Translator from the Fdroid store.

It downloads the Mozilla language packs and translates locally.

[-] aim4harmony@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

This seems a great option, thanks.

[-] jeena@piefed.jeena.net 18 points 2 days ago

https://f-droid.org/packages/dev.davidv.translator/

It's super fast, offline and has å API so other apps can use it too.

I'm using it to translate my SMS automatically, forked Fossify Messages and integrated this offline translator into it: https://git.jeena.net/jeena/sms-translate/src/branch/feature/upstream-translation-patch/README-translation.md

[-] tirateimas@lemmy.pt 8 points 2 days ago

For pages and documents, Firefox does it locally by using a small model for each language you can download once. Which is great and private.

If you want to type something an get it the translation, perhaps DeepL, but your text is sent to their server, which is not great.

[-] iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

And, as several others mentioned, these same models can be downloaded in an offline app called offline translator in fdroid.

[-] IzzuThug@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

I use Translate You installed from Droid-ify.

[-] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

I suspect local AI models are the answer, but only second best to learning the language.

this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2026
30 points (94.1% liked)

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