WWDC: Apple is about to unlock international business

The world is full of languages — more than 7,000 in all. Apple supports dozens of these in iOS, which among them reach the vast majority of people. But with so many languages in use, not everyone can communicate well, and that can cause problems doing business across borders. 

It looks as if Apple is preparing to make language problems go away.

One of the more exciting pre-WWDC rumors is that Apple will do this by implementing focused artificial intelligence in Messages, which will apparently be able to translate incoming and outgoing messages on the fly. This amazing technology means that as you write a message it will automatically be translated into your selected language; ditto, as people write back to you, their responses will be translated into your own language. 

Got the message? J’ai eu votre message…

This really has to be a notable enhancement to the on-request translation tools that already exist in iOS, which require you to select the message and then tap to translate. The automation means you can focus on saying what you want to say, rather than working hard to get your message across within the limits of what you know how to say.

Secondly, while this is being leaked as a feature for Messages, it isn’t much of a stretch to dream of it being introduced into Mail.

If that happens, you’ll be able to write business correspondence to your international network of partners much more fluidly — and it should enable them to be just as swift and accurate in their responses to you.

Removing language barriers

Earlier this year a second rumor emerged, and it speaks to this latest iOS 26 claim. That supporting speculation was that Apple plans to build automatic translation tools inside AirPods. The concept is that your AirPods will be able to provide you with instant, real-time translation of what is being said.

How this is meant to work is that your iPhone does the actual heavy lifting of processing the audio and translating what’s said in real-time, and you’ll hear that translated talk through your AirPods. Then, when you respond in your own language your iPhone will translate what you say into the destination language and play it to your interlocutor, also in real-time.

Together, these improvements could help tear down language barriers, enabling closer communication between people and nations, or at least, between those still on speaking terms as international consensus continues to unravel.

What about developers?

I think Apple could take this further. After all, having built an effective core translation technology, the company could conceivably open access to the tech as an API for third-party developers. That could enable a multitude of new app experiences, though it’s important to note this is only my speculation. 

It’s also nice to imagine a translation engine inside Xcode, enabling developers to swifty and easily create versions of their apps for multiple languages. I imagine Apple already understands how real-time translation could make for really astonishing experiences in spatial reality, enabling long distance, multi-lingual conference calls in Vision Pro devices. Think how this might transform news reporting.

Imagination is, of course the enemy of certainty, and right now there is no certainty about what Apple will introduce at next week’s developers event. But if it does bring translation to AirPods, it will effectively realize the Babel Fish vision of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams, the man who purchased the first Macintosh sold in Europe. That book, incidentally, was published just eight years before Apple imagined its Knowledge Navigator system, a product some say is about to be reborn as HomePad.

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