Why is it different in Tellu? Smart translation that understands meaning, not word by word: it understands dialects, slang and Arabic written in Latin letters.
How it works:
- Incoming messages arrive in your language automatically. A 文A icon appears next to them — tap the message to see the original, and tap again for the translation.
- At the top of the chat a line like "English ⇄ Deutsch · auto-translate" — tap it to change the other person's language.
- While typing you see:
- "They'll get:" — a preview of what they will read, before you send.
- A Translate chip turns your draft into their language (with Undo). Long-press it to choose another language.
- An Improve chip — a writing assistant that polishes your message.
- Your dialect and theirs: if your language is Arabic, choose My Arabic dialect (Standard, Levantine, Egyptian, Gulf, Iraqi, Maghrebi), and translations reach you in it. Each person has their own dialect, so you are written to in theirs.
- Tone by circle: what you write to your work circle is translated in a formal tone, and to your family in a warm one.
- In groups: every member reads messages in their own language.
Settings: More → Translation:
- Translate messages automatically (on by default).
- The line below it tells you which engine is working right now.
- And per person: their profile → Translate their messages.
Translation language = app language. To change it: More → Language.
Two translation engines:
- Smart (via the server): understands meaning and dialects. Each user gets 200 smart translations per day.
- On the phone: free, unlimited and works offline, but literal and without dialects. The first use of each language pair downloads about 30 MB.
Tellu switches to on-phone translation automatically when the daily allowance is used up or there is no internet.
Cost: free.
Common problems:
- "Translation is weaker today": most likely the 200 smart translations for today are used up, or there is no internet. It returns automatically tomorrow.
- A short message wasn't translated: messages with fewer than 3 letters are not translated.