You're at a doctor's appointment, a job interview, or a market stall abroad — and the other person doesn't speak your language. Your phone has no signal. Google Translate is spinning. This is exactly the situation Sideby was built for: a conversation translator that works entirely offline, on your phone, with no internet required.

What Is Sideby?

Sideby is an Android app that translates face-to-face conversations in real time — without an internet connection. You put the phone between you and the other person, each speak into your half of the screen, and Sideby translates and reads the result aloud. Everything runs on your phone: speech recognition, translation, and text-to-speech.

No servers. No account. No ads. No tracking. Your conversations never leave your device.

Why It Matters for Expats

As an expat in the UK, you already know the situations where a translator would help — a GP appointment, a parent-teacher meeting, helping a family member who's just arrived, or navigating a bureaucratic process with someone who doesn't speak your language. In most of those situations, you're either indoors with patchy signal or in a context where pulling up a Google search feels awkward.

Sideby solves the problem properly:

  • ✅ Works on the Tube, on a plane, in a hospital, anywhere — no signal needed once you've downloaded your languages
  • ✅ Face-to-face mode — split screen so each person reads their own half, or side by side with a mic each
  • ✅ Reads translations aloud — so the conversation flows naturally without both people squinting at a screen
  • ✅ 11 languages — English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, in any combination
  • ✅ Photo translation (Pro) — point your camera at a menu, a sign, or a form and the translation appears on the image
  • ✅ Phrasebook (Pro) — 50+ ready-made phrases for restaurants, transport, hotels, and emergencies

How to Get Started

Download Sideby on Google Play, install the language packs you need (about 30 MB each, downloaded once on Wi-Fi), and you're ready. The first 2 days are completely free — everything unlocked, no card required.

After the trial, choose between Standard (€5.99/month, covers offline conversations in all 11 languages) or Pro (€6.99/month or €89.90 once for life, which adds photo translation, phrasebook, and history).

Who Built It?

Sideby is made by Galerne Studio, an independent developer based in Lyon, France. It's a small, privacy-first product — no venture capital, no data harvesting, no subscription tricks. Just a well-built app that does one thing properly.

🟢 Try Sideby free for 2 days — no card needed
→ Download Sideby on Google Play

🌐 Learn more at www.sidebytranslator.com