By xiaoyue\June 12 2025
A Chinese girl is communicating with a foreigner through a translation app
To help international travelers communicate in China, we’ve identified four top-rated translation apps. These include South Korea’s Naver Papago, China’s Baidu Translate, and popular Western apps Microsoft Translator and iTranslate.
Below is a comparison table of their key features and usability in China:
| Name | Country | Supported Languages | Translation Features | VPN Required in China? | Offline Support | Download Links | Notes |
| Microsoft Translator | USA | 70+ | Text, voice, image, multi-person chat | No | Yes | Google Play / Apple App Store | Group chat; text+pinyin; free with Microsoft support |
| Baidu Translate | China | 28+ (English, Chinese, Japanese,Korean，French，Latin，etc.，incl. dialects) | Text, voice, image, document, real-time | No | Yes | Apple App Store (China), Google Play | Best for Chinese ↔ other languages |
| Papago | South Korea | 14（Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, etc.) | Text, image, voice, conversation, website | No | Yes | Google Play / Apple App Store | Strong at Asian languages; very smooth conversational mode |
| iTranslate | Italy | 100+ | Text, voice-to-voice, camera, offline | No | Yes (select) | Google Play / Apple App Store | UI friendly; conversation mode requires pro version |
Each app above supports multiple input modes (text typing, camera/photo OCR, and voice).
Papago and Microsoft Translator also offer real-time conversation modes that let two people speak naturally in different languages.
All four work without a VPN and include offline options for key languages.
Tips: Machine translations may misinterpret slang or context, especially with Chinese idioms or mixed English–Chinese sentences.
internet access (Wi-Fi or local SIM data) is needed for best accuracy and voice translation; offline modes are slower and may not cover every language.
In very rural areas, even offline dictionaries may be limited.
Avoid sharing personal sensitive info via app voice input.
In crowded or noisy places, voice recognition may fail – try typing or snapping a photo of text instead.
