Real-time translation for Twitch streams
Updated 2026-10-16
Press Start, play it, and the subtitles appear as it is spoken — original, translated or both. A Twitch stream has no subtitle track to translate — the talking happens live, and the chat next to it is other viewers, not a transcript. Run Tingdong on your Mac and it listens to what the stream is playing, floating live captions over the player: the original line on top, your language below, at the pace of speech. It works the same in the browser, in the Twitch desktop app and on a VOD.
How to set it up
- 1Open Tingdong and pick “Live Listen”
Choose “Screen sound” as the source so it hears exactly what the stream plays — nothing from your room or your own mic.
- 2Press Start and open the stream
Captions float over the player wherever it is: browser, Twitch desktop app, a VOD or a clip. You never pick the language — it is detected.
- 3Optional: turn on spoken interpretation
If you would rather listen than read, the translation can be read aloud in your language while the stream keeps running.
Why a live stream is the hardest case for caption tools
Most “video translator” tools translate an existing subtitle file, and a live broadcast has none: there is nothing to download, nothing to time-shift, and the stream ends before any subtitle is written. Twitch chat is not a transcript either, and a streamer’s own caption extension, when there is one, shows their language rather than yours. Tingdong skips the subtitle layer entirely — it translates the audio your Mac is already playing, so a just-chatting segment, a Korean or Japanese stream, a raid into another language, a co-stream with three people talking over each other, all caption the same way. The same window keeps working when you switch to YouTube, a VOD or a local file.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work on live streams with no captions at all?
Yes — that is the normal case on Twitch. Tingdong never reads a caption track; it listens to the audio the stream plays, so a stream with zero subtitles and a VOD with subtitles behave exactly the same.
Which stream languages does it handle?
Over 60 input languages, detected automatically per phrase. Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and mixed-language streams work without you choosing anything, including when a guest switches language mid-stream.
Do I need a browser extension?
No. Tingdong for Mac and Windows is a desktop app; on a Mac it captions any sound the Mac plays, so the browser, the Twitch desktop app, a mobile stream mirrored to your Mac and Netflix all use the same window.
Will the streamer or chat know?
No. Nothing is sent to Twitch, no bot joins the channel and nothing is posted in chat. The captions exist only on your own screen.
Can I read the original line too?
Yes. The original line stays on screen above the translation, which is what you want on streams full of game names, handles and slang — you can always check what was actually said.
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Windows 11 (subtitles and Read aloud only, nothing sent into calls)