Real-time Chinese translation on your Mac
Updated 2026-08-23
To follow Mandarin as it is spoken — a C-drama, a Bilibili stream, a supplier in Shenzhen on WeChat, a factory call, a Zoom with a Shanghai team — run Tingdong on your Mac. It listens to whatever is playing, detects Chinese automatically, and floats English captions over it at simultaneous-interpretation pace. Call Translation adds the other direction: you speak English, they hear Mandarin.
How to set it up
- 1Open Tingdong and choose “Live Listen”
Pick “Screen sound” so it hears exactly what the show, stream or meeting plays. Chinese is detected, not selected.
- 2Press Start
Captions float over the player or the meeting window: Chinese on top, English below.
- 3For a WeChat, phone or Zoom call, switch to “Call Translation”
Choose Tingdong Microphone in the app’s mic menu, or hand an iPhone call to the Mac over Bluetooth. Your English reaches them as a Chinese voice; their Mandarin comes back as English captions.
Built for WeChat and the supplier call
Most cross-border work with China happens in voice: WeChat calls, factory walk-throughs on video, a supplier who would rather talk than type. Tingdong treats WeChat like any other app — pick Tingdong Microphone in its mic menu and the call is interpreted both ways, with no bot and nothing installed on their side. Tones, dropped subjects and measure words are exactly what line-by-line translators get wrong; Tingdong translates a continuous stream and keeps context across sentences. Cantonese and Mandarin are both recognized, and a speaker who switches between Chinese and English mid-call is followed per phrase.
Frequently asked questions
Does it translate WeChat calls?
Yes. WeChat on Mac lets you choose a microphone; choose Tingdong Microphone and the call is interpreted both ways. The other party hears your words as a Chinese voice alongside yours and installs nothing.
Mandarin or Cantonese?
Both are among the 60 recognized languages and are detected automatically, per phrase, so you do not choose in advance.
Does it work on Bilibili, iQIYI and Youku?
Yes. It captures the audio your Mac plays, so any site or player works — including live streams with no subtitle track — and the same floating captions follow you to YouTube, Netflix and local files.
How accurate is it for business Mandarin?
Meeting and dialogue speech translates well; context is kept across sentences. Rapid crosstalk, chengyu-heavy speech and songs are hard for any machine translation — the Chinese line stays on screen above the translation so you can always check.
Try it on your next video, meeting or call
Download free for macOS100 trial credits on install · No signup, no credit card