Real-time translation for YouTube videos and live streams
Updated 2026-07-26
To watch a YouTube video or live stream in a language you don’t speak, run Tingdong on your Mac: it listens to the audio and floats live translated captions over the video. It doesn’t need the video to have a caption track, it works on live streams where auto-captions are missing, and the same captions follow you to Twitch, embedded players and local files.
How to set it up
- 1Open Tingdong and pick “Live Listen”
Choose “Screen sound” as the source so it hears exactly what the video plays — no room noise.
- 2Press Start and play the video
A floating caption panel appears over YouTube (or any app): original line on top, your language below.
- 3Optional: turn on spoken interpretation
Prefer to listen instead of read? The translation can be read aloud in your language while the video plays.
Why not just use YouTube’s auto-translate?
YouTube’s auto-translated captions stack two error layers: speech recognition built for general English first mishears the line, then a subtitle translator garbles it further — which is why they collapse on accents, names, music and fast speech, and why many live streams offer no captions at all. Tingdong listens to the audio directly with a dedicated speech-translation engine, so there is no caption track in the middle. It also isn’t a browser extension: the same floating captions work on Twitch, Vimeo, embedded course players, VLC and files on your disk.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work on live streams?
Yes — live streams are the main reason people switch. Auto-captions are often unavailable or delayed on streams; Tingdong translates the live audio as it plays, at simultaneous-interpretation pacing, whether it’s a YouTube premiere, a Twitch stream or a VTuber broadcast.
The video has no captions at all. Does that matter?
No. Tingdong never reads the caption track — it listens to the audio itself. Videos with zero subtitles, auto-captions disabled, or hardcoded foreign subs all work the same way.
Does it only work on YouTube?
It works on anything your Mac plays: YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, Bilibili, embedded players in online courses, VLC and local video files. One app, the same floating captions everywhere — no per-site extension.
What does an hour of video cost?
Live captions cost 1 credit per minute — an hour is 60 credits. Every new Mac gets 100 trial credits free, no signup; after that the monthly membership covers about 16 hours of watching.
Try it on your next video, meeting or call
Download free for macOS100 trial credits on install · No signup, no credit card