Live translation for church services

How a service runs

Before the service. Add the names people will hear to All Voices as terms: the pastor and speakers, the church and place names, and the words your community uses often. All Voices then recognises them in every session.

At the start. Place the phone or laptop where it hears the preacher clearly, for example on the lectern. Start the session and tap Audience. Show the QR code on a screen, print it as a sign from the web app, or read out the six-digit code that people type at allvoices.app/join.

During the service. Each person chooses a language once. Captions appear line by line as the sermon goes on. Anyone can turn the sound on to hear the translation and turn it off again, for example during the songs.

After the service. The sermon is saved as a meeting with its recording, the transcript and a summary.

For visitors who would rather listen

Spoken translation uses the preacher’s own voice once enough clear speech is available, with a stock voice until then. A listener can choose the phone’s own voice instead. Listeners in the room should use earphones, so that the microphone near the preacher does not pick up the translation.

"Show original" puts the preacher’s words beside the translation, for people who are learning the language of the service.

A bilingual service

Many congregations worship in two languages, for example English and Spanish. Set the session to that pair and All Voices translates each language into the other, whoever is speaking: the sermon in one language, a reading or a prayer in the other. Listeners can still choose a third language on their phones.

After the service

• The sermon text. The transcript keeps every line with the original and the translation. Download subtitles (SRT or VTT) for a video of the service, or a Word or PDF report with the transcript.
• A summary in each member’s language. Share the sermon by link: each reader opens the summary, and the transcript if you include it, in the language they choose from up to eight that you approve. Readers need no account. You can add a passcode and choose when the link stops working.
• Search. Every saved service can be searched, so a sermon from last spring is easy to find.

Check names and scripture references in the transcript before you publish it.

Small groups and members’ meetings

In a Bible study, a members’ meeting or a parents’ evening, people can ask a question from their own phone in their own language. They raise a hand, you allow it, and the translation of what they say is spoken to the room. One person speaks at a time.

What it costs

Members and visitors pay nothing. Their time comes out of the church’s balance, on top of the session itself: a reading listener uses 12 minutes per hour, 6 from the eleventh listener and 3 from the fifty-first; sound on doubles it; the first two reading listeners are free.

Example: a one-hour service with 20 people reading along uses 3 hours 36 minutes of the balance (the hour of the session, 96 minutes for listeners three to ten, 60 minutes for listeners eleven to twenty). Hours come in prepaid packs, with no subscription, and they never expire. See pricing.

Limits to know

• One service takes up to ten listener languages; spoken translation is available in up to three of them. Others read along.
• Some languages are marked experimental in the language list and can be less reliable.
• Codes do not carry over from one week to the next. Each service gets a new code; an audience link closes one hour after the session ends.
• Live captions need an internet connection on the device near the preacher and on each phone.
• For a large event with hundreds of listeners in many languages, a conference interpretation platform is the better fit.

Tell the congregation

Announce that the service is transcribed, translated and recorded. This is personal translation, not official interpretation: for a wedding, a funeral or any occasion where every word must be exact, a qualified interpreter is the safer choice.