Real-time translation for Discord voice chat
Updated 2026-09-15
Press Start, play it, and the captions appear as it is spoken — original, translated or both. Translation bots on Discord work on typed messages in a text channel; the moment people move to voice, there is nothing for them to read. Tingdong runs on your Mac and captions the voice channel as it happens — every speaker, in the original language on top and yours below — and if you want to be understood as well, picking “Tingdong Microphone” in Discord sends your side as a translated voice. No bot joins the server and nothing is posted.
How to set it up
- 1To understand the channel: “Live Listen” with “Screen sound”
Press Start in Tingdong and join the voice channel as usual. Captions float over Discord or over the game, updating while people are still talking.
- 2To be understood: “Call Translation”
Choose “Tingdong Microphone” as the input device in Discord’s Voice & Video settings. The others hear your original voice plus a translated voice.
- 3Optional: have it read aloud
If you are playing and cannot look away, the translation can be spoken in your language instead of read.
Several people talking at once, in more than one language
A voice channel is the hardest shape of conversation: no turn-taking, overlapping speakers, game audio underneath, and often two or three languages in the same room. Tingdong translates the audio the channel plays, so the number of speakers is not a factor, and the language is detected per phrase among 60+ inputs rather than set once — a Spanish-speaking squad that drops into English for callouts keeps captioning correctly. Because it works outside Discord, the same window also captions a stream someone is screen-sharing, a YouTube clip played in the channel and a game’s own voice lines. Nothing is added to the server, so there is no bot permission to grant and nothing for other members to see.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to add a bot to the server?
No. Tingdong is a Mac app that captions the audio your Mac plays, so it needs no server permissions, adds nothing to the member list and posts nothing in any channel.
Can the others hear me in their language?
Yes, with Call Translation on: pick “Tingdong Microphone” as your input in Discord and they hear your original voice plus a translated voice. They install nothing.
Does it work when several people talk at once?
It captions the channel audio as it plays, so overlapping speakers and mid-conversation language switches are handled without any per-user setup.
Will it caption a screen share or a stream in the channel?
Yes. Anything your Mac plays gets captioned, so a shared stream, a video played in the channel and the voice chat itself all appear in the same caption window.
Try it on your next video, meeting or call
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