Apple has been packed in iOS 26 with new features that promote the calling experience on iPhones. I have already discovered how the new call screen works on iOS 26, offering how Pixel 9 does it with Android 16.
But now, now is the time to test another new calling features: directly translated.
This is not just for phone calls because direct translation works in other apps such as messages and fee time. In fact, this is one of the few new features of Apple Intelligence that the company announced during its WWDC 2025 key note for iOS 26 – which allows users to translate phone calls in real time.
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Although it is one of the features that meets the use of a particular issue, you can find it easy when it comes to an opportunity. Meanwhile, Samsung has offered this version called a direct translation as part of the Galaxy AI Sweet since the Galaxy S24 series.
For this comparison, I’m going to break how these competitive services perform and tell you which one is more reliable.
Directly translated iOS 26 vs Galaxy AI: Supported Languages
(Image Credit: Future)
To test these direct translation features for phone calls, I am running the iPhone 16 Pro Max with iOS 26 beta, running the Galaxy Z Philip 7.
One of the important things to know is that every service supports translation into English.
In its current repetition, the beta direct translation feature with iOS 26 supports only four languages: Spanish, Portuguese, German and French. You are limited with options, but hopefully Apple will produce more languages in the coming months.
Samsung offers more. Here are 25+ languages that support the direct translation of the Galaxy AI, and for that reason, it is very versatile.
Winner: Galaxy A.
Directly translated iOS 26 vs Galaxy AI: Spanish translation
(Image Credit: Future)
The original tests that they perform well, I created stories using Google Gemini – which I then translated Google to translate and speak to me. As a phone call, as a second language translating another phone in another language, I had both phones translated the following in real time:
“The air was thick and salty, a hot blanket that wrapped around me when I got out of the car. My feet found soft, warm sand, and I melted the last part of my daily tension. Taking a last, deep breath, while painting the horizon, sinking the sun in the horizon, and painting the sky in orange and pink volcanoes.
The iPhone 16 Pro Max offers better experience here with iOS 26 as it speaks out loud after a two sentences. What happens, is that the caller’s audio is soft so that translations in English can play over them.
With the Galaxy AI, it tells the other person on the line that the feature is active, but it has delayed the translation. Although it manages to translate the story properly into English, it feels less in natural conversation because it awaits how it works.
Winner: iOS 26
Directly translated iOS 26 vs Galaxy AI: French translation
(Image Credit: Future)
Next, I asked Gemini to create a story, which stated what the intravenous was in a comprehensive summary. Here I used to test directly with iOS 26 vs Galaxy AI:
“Entropy in the process. This is not a punishment. This is a fundamental principle of the universe. This plate, all its molecules in a perfect arrangement, had a state of low -intercourse – less or less disorder. Now, scattered on the floor, it is in place of work. The universe is naturally not a matter of chaos, but it is a matter of chaos.
The direct translation on iOS 26 stumbled a couple of times with translation, but the overall view of the intentropy came. Just as before, it also declares that the translation is active after running after it – with a two sentences with the original translation begins.
On my iPhone 16 Pro Max, I really like how it breaks into the IMCage style chat bubbles. What is more enjoyable is how a direct translation on iOS 26 feels like a natural conversation by making the speaker’s voice -speaking translation hidden.
The Galaxy AI not only waits until the caller looks and before talking to me, it seems disturbing that I cannot scroll through my Galaxy Z Philip 7 through translation. Unlike the iPhone, it manages to translate the conversation more accurately – which makes the iPhone mess. But nevertheless, I still like how iOS 26 overall performs.
Winner: iOS 26
Directly translated iOS 26 vs Galaxy AI: German translation
(Image Credit: Future)
Finally, I created Gemini a story about someone about which someone explained my day more comfortable in the office. Here is a complete error:
My day? It has been a marathon of meetings that could have been fighting with emails and a printer that personally hates me. I’ve been staring at the same spreadsheet for two hours, looking for a typo that has the same digit, and I am confident that my eyes are crossing. Hamasters on my head in my head have been abandoned and now they are sitting in the corner drinking small glasses of water. I have targeted mental capacity for the day, and now I am sitting here, making excuses to be fruitful unless there is a socially acceptable time to avoid this fluorescent.
The final result with this German translation is no different from the rest, as iOS 26 handles it in a more natural way of how it eliminates the translated conversation while the person actively speaks. This happens after two sentences and moves forward to maintain the same pace in the rest of the conversation. It finally stumbled only once.
Until then, I was expecting a drill with Galaxy AI as before. In particular, he waited again until the whole conversation was over to begin to begin – which makes it a bit strange. Yes, the translation was completely accurate, but I still do not like a long interval.
That is why I tried it for the second time, the caller kept in two sentences for a long time. While this is the only way I am able to start translating the Galaxy AI in advance, it disrupts the flow of conversation. For this reason, I am giving it to iOS 26.
Winner: iOS 26
Directly translated iOS 26 vs Galaxy A: What do you need to know
Beyond their ability to translate the phone conversation in a real time, it is worth mentioning some of these rates that I was found to test the features of these direct translation. Neither service allows me to save duplication, while the feature is active, which is disturbing because they will be easier to be saved from a note or something else.
Secondly, a direct translation with the Galaxy AI does not allow me to scroll through the copy when I am actively on call. I do not understand why you can’t do it, but will help go back into the translated conversation so I have cited something – or want to follow it.
Directly translated iOS 26 vs Galaxy AI: Word
(Image Credit: Tom’s Guide / John Velasco)
Although the Galaxy was closely spotted on with the AI translation and offers more auxiliary languages, it is a way of performing a translation that does not make it so intuitive in using it. At the end of the day, I would prefer to experience more comfortable than talking to a foreign language – rather than wait for these long and strange intervals.
I can forgive iOS 26 to raise a couple of things in my test, but Apple provides absolutely practical experience. Not only does it begin to translate very quickly than the galaxy AI, but the way it eliminates the audio makes it much easier. In addition, I do how I am able to scroll through my iPhone through translation. It is hoped that Apple has made and enhanced the Necessary essential adaptation to improve the last release of iOS 26 after this fall.
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