Support

So your text goes straight from your device to the translation service, with no middleman. You use your own account and quota; LingCat doesn’t bill you and can’t see what you translate.

Some translation services don’t need an API key. Apple Translate is already added and enabled the first time you open LingCat, so you can translate right away. Apple Intelligence requires iOS 26, macOS 26, or later, and a device that supports it.

The free version can enable only one translation service at a time. LingCat Pro is one purchase, yours forever. Enable as many translation services as you like, compare their results side by side, and share the purchase with your family group.

The floating window and the Safari extension each use one translation service, chosen from all of them, so the limit doesn’t apply to them.

iPhone and iPad only

In the Floating Window tab, choose a translation service and tap Start Floating Window. Then copy text in any other app, and the translation appears in the floating window as it arrives. Longer text scrolls up on its own.

You can also add the Floating Window control to Control Center to start or stop it from anywhere.

iPhone and iPad only

Yes. “Paste from Other Apps” is set to “Ask” by default. Open LingCat, go to General in Settings, and tap Turn Off Paste Prompts under Clipboard. LingCat’s page in the Settings app opens; set “Paste from Other Apps” to “Allow.”

iPhone and iPad only

Yes. The Translate Text action takes a source language, a target language, and one or more of your enabled translation services. When it runs, it shows each service’s result as a card, and it also returns a list of results you can use one at a time in later steps.

Control Center also has two controls. Translate opens LingCat ready to type, and Floating Window shows or hides the floating translation window.

iPhone and iPad only

When you translate in the app or in the floating window, iOS offers to download a missing language pack, and you can tap to download it. A shortcut runs in the background with no screen to show that offer, so all it can do is report the error. Translate the same two languages once in LingCat to download the pack, and the shortcut works from then on.

Using Apple Translate in Shortcuts requires iOS 26 or later.

On iPhone and iPad, open LingCat, tap Set as Default Translation App in Settings, and make LingCat your default translation app in the Settings app that opens. After that, when you select text and tap Translate, LingCat translates it. Requires iOS 18.4 or later.

On Mac, select text and press ⌥D for Translate Selection. The first time, allow LingCat to use Accessibility in System Settings.

1. Turn on the LingCat extension. On iPhone and iPad, go to Settings, tap Apps, tap Safari, then tap Extensions. On Mac, turn it on in the Extensions section of Safari Settings.
2. On a webpage, tap LingCat in the Page Menu on iPhone and iPad, or click LingCat in the toolbar on Mac, then choose Translate Webpage. If LingCat isn’t allowed to access the website yet, allow it first.
3. Once you allow LingCat to access the website, a Translate button appears at the edge of the page, and automatic translation by your rules and Input Translation work there too. On Mac, you can also press ⌥E to translate the webpage, and press it again to view the original.

API keys are stored in the keychain, encrypted by the system, and sent only to the translation service they belong to. With iCloud Keychain turned on, they sync with end-to-end encryption to devices signed in to the same Apple Account.

Deleting a translation service deletes its API key too. See the Privacy Policy for details.

It syncs translation services, styles, and the settings for language detection and webpage translation, such as languages, the translation service, appearance, and translation rules. Settings for keyboard shortcuts, the floating window, the Translate button, Input Translation, and Hover Translation don’t sync, so each device keeps its own. Statistics and the cache also stay on each device.

Automatic Sync is off by default. You can turn it on in General in Settings, or use Push to iCloud and Pull from iCloud… to sync by hand.

With iCloud Keychain turned on, API keys sync through it, whether or not Automatic Sync is on.