Church translation and captioning tools11 tools, 18 real uses.
Live captions help people who are hard of hearing follow a service, and live translation helps people who speak another language take part.
These tools range from built-in features in software you may already use to dedicated church translation services. Accuracy varies with audio quality, accents and theological vocabulary, so test with a real service recording and add custom terms where a tool allows it.
Our rule: we list tools that help you study, organize and serve. We don't list sermon-writing generators.
Tools to look at
PowerPoint live subtitles
Real-time captions and translated subtitles while presenting.
Official site ↗How churches are using them
Turn Sunday's sermon into vertical clips
Sermon Shots cuts sermons into captioned clips, quote images and summaries.
Source: Sermon Shots ↗Translate the sermon live to phones via QR code
CaptionKit translates the service into 200+ languages; guests follow on their phones.
Source: CaptionKit ↗Send translated captions to the broadcast over NDI
Linguify streams translated audio and NDI caption output for multilingual services.
Source: Linguify ↗Caption a bilingual Spanish/English service
Livefy auto-detects the spoken language and captions for congregations that switch languages.
Source: Livefy ↗Caption for the hard of hearing
Polyglossia began as same-language live captions for hard-of-hearing congregants.
Source: Polyglossia ↗Put live captions in ProPresenter
Selah Translate adds a caption URL as a Web Fill prop — no NDI hardware.
Source: Selah Translate ↗Draft Scripture for translator review
SIL's Scripture Forge generates drafts that translation teams revise and approve.
Source: SIL AI ↗Train Old Testament drafts on validated New Testaments
Project Slingshot uses existing translations to draft new books faster.
Source: ETEN Innovation Lab ↗Speed translation projects up to 50%
Wycliffe reports AI-assisted drafting accelerating some projects.
Source: Wycliffe Bible Translators ↗Use AI as a translation co-pilot
Wycliffe Australia explains how AI accelerates, not replaces, human translators.
Source: Wycliffe Australia ↗Hear from translators on good tools
Field stories on how translators use AI drafting tools.
Source: Wycliffe Global Alliance ↗Read a foreign-language commentary or article
Professionals use machine translation to read documents in other languages. Pastor use: get a working translation of a German or French scholarly article, then check key sentences before relying on them.
Source: DeepL ↗Show live subtitles from PowerPoint
PowerPoint can caption what the speaker says in real time, in the same language or translated, with no extra software.
Source: Microsoft Support ↗Turn on automatic captions for the livestream
YouTube can add automatic live captions to an eligible stream, so viewers who are hard of hearing can follow along at home.
Source: YouTube Help ↗Talk with a guest who speaks another language
Google Translate's conversation mode translates both sides of a spoken exchange on a phone, handy for a welcome desk or hospitality moment.
Source: Google Translate Help ↗Point members with low vision to a free describing app
Seeing AI reads printed text, documents and scenes aloud on a phone, which helps blind and low-vision members read bulletins and handouts.
Source: Seeing AI ↗Add translated subtitles to recorded teaching videos
Upload a recorded class or talk, get a transcript and subtitles in other languages, and have a fluent reader check them before posting.
Source: Happy Scribe ↗Stream captions and translation to phones for multilingual events
A live captioning and translation service that sends text to attendees' devices or the screen; review vocabulary lists for names and terms first.
Source: spf.io ↗FAQ
How do people receive live translation?
Most services show a QR code that opens a web page on the listener's phone with text or audio in their chosen language; some also send captions to the main screen or stream.
Are AI captions accurate enough?
Often good with clear audio, weaker with names, place names and theological terms. Feed the speaker's microphone directly and add a custom vocabulary list.
Is there a free option?
PowerPoint live subtitles and YouTube automatic live captions are built in. Microsoft Translator also offers free multi-device conversations.
Keep exploring
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