Has anyone tried translation Earbuds for English to Thai language.    I am age-71, live in Thailand, and while i know some very limited Thai, I found having an electronic translation aid a big benefit.   Obviously I use Google translate a lot for English-Thai, however just as obvious, Google has limitations for translation.  My wife is Thai and I often have to have Google translate running on my phone translating in real time, while she is in Thai conversation with friends, such that I am not totally out of the conversion.  (ie I read the translations on the phone to assist what i can hear and translate myself).  But again, Google translate is limited. The translation DeepL, which is fabulous for European languages, does not support Thai.

 

Recently I read of Translation Earbuds, that can translate between languages almost in real time. Purportedly they have very good noise reduction with their embedded mic, so to be able to hear what is been spoken (ie hear Thai). Translation purportedly very fast (better than google) and the translation goes into the earbuds where one hears the Thai translation in one's earbuds.  When wants to reply the mic sends one's words to one's mobile phone, and their app speaks Thai through the phone's speaker.  ...  Again, purportedly superior to Google translate.

 

Two products that I read to consider are:

- Sonabuds ( https://www.sonabudstranslator.com/ )

-  Timekettle (different models) https://www.timekettle.co/

 

While nominally Timekettle gets superior reviews, one MUST have internet for the translation for Thai (as they do not, based I can determine from research, have an offline Thai translation database). Which means poor internet will slow the translation or even prevent the translation.

 

Sonabuds advertise they operate offline (not need internet) for most translations, but I have not been able to confirm they have offline Thai.  I did read an Amazon article back in Nov-2020 where a Sonabud rep noted they not yet support Thai language. That was 5 years ago.  I have not been able to determine if they have added Thai language in the past 5 years.  I can not find an email contact on their webpage to ask.

 

My thinking at present:  If there is no offline internet, then I would likely go with a Timekettle product.  But if there is offline support for Sonabuds, then I would likely go with Sonabuds (however I can not determine if Sonabuds supports Thai language offline).

 

So the question - any experience with either product (or another) for Thai-English electronic translation in real time (ie for verbal conversations)?

These all use apps on your phone as far as I know, so I don't think there is anything special about the earbugs other than maybe some companies trying to make them proprietary to their app.   I think good quality earbugs and google translate can do the same thing.

There's a wide selection on Lazada, Shopee, AliExpress, maybe try one with the best reviews where the price is right 

2 hours ago, shdmn said:

These all use apps on your phone as far as I know, so I don't think there is anything special about the earbugs other than maybe some companies trying to make them proprietary to their app.   I think good quality earbugs and google translate can do the same thing.

 

I have been using Google translate, but it has limitations. Here is my thinking (where I may even go for Timekettle W4 Pro - as money is not an objective).

 

I note that both the Timekettle W4 Pro and WT2 Edge differ from Google Translate (even with Google's current Conversation Mode) primarily because of their dedicated, shareable earbud hardware. They allow each participant to wear an earbud or use a speaker mode that does not require holding or passing a phone.  I suspect that this setup reduces the need to tap the screen or hand a device to the next speaker, which can make back-and-forth exchanges feel somewhat smoother in practice than Google translate.

 

For multi-person Thai conversations at home, the ability to give one earbud to a friend or keep one ear open to the room while still receiving translations looks to me to be more convenient than managing a single phone in the middle of some table in the room.

 

My experience is Google Translate’s Conversation Mode more or less works ok for two people and has limited auto-detection, but in larger or noisier groups Google Translate still relies on the phone staying in a central position and occasionally requires manual intervention. With Google translate its awkward to aggressively thrust a phone out in the midst of a group of Thai people (for example when with my wife's Thai friends and they are all speaking Thai).

 

For occasional solo use with market vendors, I read that the Timekettle earbuds’ built-in microphones and noise-reduction features can pick up speech a little more clearly in loud environments than most nominal earbuds.   One limitation is that I do note that real-time Thai ↔ Both English translation on Google Translate and also the Timekettle devices requires an internet connection.

 

My conclusion at present is from experience, while I found Google Translate sort of works for many everyday tasks (and costs nothing), I am starting to think that the Timekettle devices likely provide a different, hardware-based approach - an approach that may be more practical for frequent multi-person conversations.

 

Hence I may take advantage of 'Black Friday' sales and order a device.

2 hours ago, oldcpu said:

 

I have been using Google translate, but it has limitations. Here is my thinking (where I may even go for Timekettle W4 Pro - as money is not an objective).

 

I note that both the Timekettle W4 Pro and WT2 Edge differ from Google Translate (even with Google's current Conversation Mode) primarily because of their dedicated, shareable earbud hardware. They allow each participant to wear an earbud or use a speaker mode that does not require holding or passing a phone.  I suspect that this setup reduces the need to tap the screen or hand a device to the next speaker, which can make back-and-forth exchanges feel somewhat smoother in practice than Google translate.

 

For multi-person Thai conversations at home, the ability to give one earbud to a friend or keep one ear open to the room while still receiving translations looks to me to be more convenient than managing a single phone in the middle of some table in the room.

 

My experience is Google Translate’s Conversation Mode more or less works ok for two people and has limited auto-detection, but in larger or noisier groups Google Translate still relies on the phone staying in a central position and occasionally requires manual intervention. With Google translate its awkward to aggressively thrust a phone out in the midst of a group of Thai people (for example when with my wife's Thai friends and they are all speaking Thai).

 

For occasional solo use with market vendors, I read that the Timekettle earbuds’ built-in microphones and noise-reduction features can pick up speech a little more clearly in loud environments than most nominal earbuds.   One limitation is that I do note that real-time Thai ↔ Both English translation on Google Translate and also the Timekettle devices requires an internet connection.

 

My conclusion at present is from experience, while I found Google Translate sort of works for many everyday tasks (and costs nothing), I am starting to think that the Timekettle devices likely provide a different, hardware-based approach - an approach that may be more practical for frequent multi-person conversations.

 

Hence I may take advantage of 'Black Friday' sales and order a device.

 

If you use Google Pixel earbuds the mic on those will supposedly work with the Google Translate app.  I don't think there is any technical reason why the mic on generic earbuds can't work but they apparently don't with Google Translate.  Perhaps they will on some other translate app.

 

It does work with the mic on my generic wired headphones.

54 minutes ago, shdmn said:

 

If you use Google Pixel earbuds the mic on those will supposedly work with the Google Translate app.  I don't think there is any technical reason why the mic on generic earbuds can't work but they apparently don't with Google Translate.  Perhaps they will on some other translate app.

 

It does work with the mic on my generic wired headphones.

 

I have used Google translate a lot. 

 

(1) for noisy multi-speaker settings, my experience is Google translate struggles. I have read this is also true using Pixel Buds. In contrast Timekettle W4 Pro excels in such an environment.

(2) For one on one chat I read they both do well, except Pixel Buds require one person to use a smartphone speaker. W4 Pro give one a choice - while one always uses an ear pod, the other can use the second ear-pod, or they can use a smartphone speaker. 

 

(3) For communicating with a street vendor, pixel buds purportedly struggle due to street noise.  W4 Pro adapt much better. 

 

(4) Social media/news automatic translation - Google with pixel buds is very limited here.  I know Google transalate struggles with the basic phone.   I read Timekettle W4 does this well.

 

Summary:  From what I read, to a large extent it boils down to - you get what you pay for.

 

As noted, I have used/played with Google translate extensively.  It is lacking.  What I note on Timekettle Ear-pod(s) is based on reading reviews and watching youtube videos.  Hence my post here looking for experience on such devices with Thai language in typical expat situations.

 

So as noted, I already have the Google translate experience from myself using such. I am not looking for Google experience here, as I have that. Again, I am curious to hear from those who have such devices as I noted with Thai language in typical expat situations.

 

But thank-you for your participation in this thread, as I suspect many have the same thinking as yourself, that Google translate could be more than adequate.  ...  I don't see it that way, and from what I have read, some dedicated devices can do a significantly superior job.

 

Best wishes.

3 hours ago, shdmn said:

 

If you use Google Pixel earbuds the mic on those will supposedly work with the Google Translate app. 

 

Speaking of Google Pixel earbuds - here is  ' related ' comparison :

 

The above video refers to the Timekettle W4. I am actually thinking of Timekettle W4 pro which is a step up (and I will likely purchase such very soon to take advantage of Black Friday pricing).  The W4 Pro have a larger charger device and additional features. They sit on the ear, but do not go 'in' the ear.

 

In terms of functionality comparison, that video does not go into the features of either very much.  

 

The W4pro are more expensive/premium designed for translation (hence not as good for music playback), ... while Google Pix Buds Pro2 more for music play, with translation is just a feature (hence not as 'good' overall for translation).  

 

I suspect which one is selected depends on a person's budget and their planned use.

.

If you do decide to go ahead with this, it would be very interesting if you reported back once you had the opportunity to trial them for a reasonable period.

I may order later this evening. If I do, and after it arrives, I likely will test with my Thai wife and test at some of the local Thai shops. If that works I may buy a second one as a gift for my Thai brother in law ( who does business with foreign speaking vendors from which he buys equipment,  but he relies on my wife to translatefor him as he only speaks Thai).

After seeing the new Apple AirPods doing live translation, I bought three sets of cheap Chinese ones to try out before pulling the trigger on buying the Apple ones and I've been very impressed with the speed with which they can do the translation so I'll just stick with them until I upgrade my IPhone [The translation feature on the Airpods requires Apple Intelligence which my IPhone doesn't support]

 

All three sets use the same app on your phone

 

 

7 hours ago, oldcpu said:

I may order later this evening. If I do, and after it arrives, I likely will test with my Thai wife and test at some of the local Thai shops. If that works I may buy a second one as a gift for my Thai brother in law ( who does business with foreign speaking vendors from which he buys equipment,  but he relies on my wife to translatefor him as he only speaks Thai).

Can they translate Isaan?

14 hours ago, oldcpu said:

 

Speaking of Google Pixel earbuds - here is  ' related ' comparison :

 

The above video refers to the Timekettle W4. I am actually thinking of Timekettle W4 pro which is a step up (and I will likely purchase such very soon to take advantage of Black Friday pricing).  The W4 Pro have a larger charger device and additional features. They sit on the ear, but do not go 'in' the ear.

 

In terms of functionality comparison, that video does not go into the features of either very much.  

 

The W4pro are more expensive/premium designed for translation (hence not as good for music playback), ... while Google Pix Buds Pro2 more for music play, with translation is just a feature (hence not as 'good' overall for translation).  

 

I suspect which one is selected depends on a person's budget and their planned use.

.

 

This video mentions some other ones not mentioned here.  I already have Soundcore earbuds with mic and ANC, although not the ones mentioned here, and they seem to also work with the Soundcore app translation feature. Yes, it includes the Thai language.  Will have to try walk around and see how well they work in noisy environments. 

 

My earbuds also sound decent for music and didn't cost nearly as much as some of the other ones mentioned here, Soundcore Life Dot 3i. 

 

 

So I tried using my Soundcore earbuds on the BTS.  Never tried back and forth converstion, but I did put it into real time translation mode and let it translate all the conversations going on around me.  It was able to translate the lady beside me talking on her phone and the BTS station announcements, all sort of happening at the same time.  Was kind of impressed considering the somewhat noisy environment of a moving BTS train filled with people.  Will have to give it a try walking around Sukhumvit with all the traffic noise, or at a public market. 

 

Phone mic is used for real time translation of Thai to English, and the headphone mic is used for listening to my voice to translating that to Thai.  I'm still trying to get used to the app.  One thing it does not yet have have that Google Translate does is converstion mode, where it will automatically switch back and forth between Thai and English without having to manually do that.  However, the realtime translation mode, where it constantly listens for Thai and translates everything it hears back to me in the earbuds, seems to work well.  Thai to English translation plays back on the earbuds and English to Thai plays back on the phone speaker, as you would expect for this kind of thing.

4 minutes ago, shdmn said:

So I tried using my Soundcore earbuds on the BTS.  Never tried back and forth converstion, but I did put it into real time translation mode and let it translate all the conversations going on around me.  It was able to translate the lady beside me talking on her phone and the BTS station announcements, all sort of happening at the same time.  Was kind of impressed considering the somewhat noisy environment of a BTS filled with people.  Will have to give it a try walking around Sukhumvit with all the traffic noise, or at a public market. 

 

The app itself allows me to select the earbuds or the phone mic for listening.  I'm still trying to get used to the app.  One thing it doesn't have that Google Translate does is converstion mode, where it will automatically switch back and forth between Thai and English without having to manually do that.  However, the realtime translation mode, where it constantly listens for Thai and translates everything it hears, seems to work well.  Thai to English translation plays back on the earbugs and English to Thai plays back on the phone speaker. Doesn't seem to have a background mode, so the app needs to be running in the foreground the whole time.  Perhaps future updates will address some of the shortcomings.

Which soundcore buds and app?

39 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

Which soundcore buds and app?

There is only one Soundcore app as far as I know.  It allows me to adjust ANC, equalization and button functions. The translation feature is built into that same app.  The earbuds I have are the Soundcore Life Dot 3i with ANC.  They are a few years old now so there are newer ones available.  I also have the Soundcore Space One Pro over ear headphones.  The app and translation feature seems to work with all their products.  

 

There is a Soundcore store in CentralWorld Mall in Bangkok where you can demo their stuff.  I'm a fan.  Good quality without the big brand prices.  I don't know if they work as well as the specialized translator earbuds/apps, but they are cheaper and I already own them so...

15 minutes ago, shdmn said:

The translator feature seems to work with all the Soundcore products

Just tried it with my old SoundCore Liberty2 earpods and the translation feature does work. 

 

Also a fan of the Anker products.

On 11/26/2025 at 8:21 AM, shdmn said:

 

This video mentions some other ones not mentioned here.  I already have Soundcore earbuds with mic and ANC, although not the ones mentioned here, and they seem to also work with the Soundcore app translation feature. Yes, it includes the Thai language.  Will have to try walk around and see how well they work in noisy environments. 

 

My earbuds also sound decent for music and didn't cost nearly as much as some of the other ones mentioned here, Soundcore Life Dot 3i. 

 

 

 

Interesting video as to what they claim are the "5 best AI translator ebuds".  Some of those look pretty neat, and the price reasonable.

 

I don't believe thou, that those are the 5 best ...  Having typed that, i do believe that all 5 can be very helpful in translation, to a greater or lessor extent.  I think that video gives a GREAT list of possible earbuds for Aseannow forum members (who are thinking of translation earbuds) to consider.

 

There are earbuds more than 2x to 3x (or even more than 3x) the cost of those in that excellent video, where the more expensive ones claim to be better in terms of translation and usability.  Is such necessary?  ... I don't know yet as I have yet to try such.  It is possible thou one gets what one pays for (to a lessor and greater extent).

 

Some technologies (that I read) that the more expensive earbuds have are: 

 

Bone-voiceprint sensor in the earbud's mic (for earbuds that also have a mic).  This is in essence an additional sensor, that in addition to the audio mic, captures the fundamental vibration pattern of one's voice through one's jaw/skull, providing a clean reference signal.   Meanwhile, in parallel, the earbuds air microphones captures the full-spectrum of one's voice mixed with ambient noise.  

 

The Digitial Signal Processor (DSP) (on one's smartphone)  then performs time-aligned correlation between these two inputs. Portions of the air-mic signal that correlate with the bone-voiceprint pattern are identified as one's voice and boosted, while uncorrelated portions are treated as noise and suppressed.

 

By using the bone sensor’s clean template to guide this filtering, the system isolates your true voice and removes surrounding noise. This achieves significantly stronger noise rejection than bone conduction alone, enabling clear speech capture even in loud environments.

 

 AI Semantic Segmentation functionality 

 

I only know of one earbud that has this but i suspect there is more than one.    

 

My understand is as follows, and I may have this inexactly.

 

Almost ALL earbuds record the audio (say Thai  that one speaks or that the mic records), and once a pause in the Thai audio is detected (and ONLY when pause detected), do most earbuds, (after a 1 to 2 second pause), and again, only then, send the translation from Thai to English language to the earbud.

 

While the translation to English (from Thai) is being sent, no more Thai audio is being recorded (nor translated). Only after sent translation is complete, do the other devices resume recording to translate.  The implication is one misses some of what the Thai speaker is saying.

 

Earbuds with Ai Segmentation functionality?  The AI Semantic Segmentation feature detects the end of a sentence (even thou the Thai speaker continues to speak). It translates that Thai to English and then (after a < 0.5 second pause) sends a translation in English to the earbud (of the English language person) in parallel, while the Thai language speaker continues to speak in Thai.

 

That ongoing Thai language is recorded and again, its AI Semantic Segmentation detects the end of the next sentence (even thou the Thai speaker continues to speak) , translates to English, send the English translation, while record/translation continues ... and this goes on and on.

 

... and the reverse is true when translating from English to Thai.

 

So purportedly no conversation is missed. Other translation devices miss conversation if the speaker does not pause long enough.

 

Expensive (?) features not worth while ? or worth while? 

 

My understanding is that these are expensive features ... and I do not have any experience as of yet as to whether they provide a definite improvement in the translation experience, or if they are no more than an expensive catchy phrase boon-doggle.
 

I tried using Soundcore realtime translation in the Siam Pargon food court with lots of people around and lots of background noise.  It was easily able to pick up conversations a few feet away and translate them in real time.  Some of them were speaking quite fast.  Also was able to pick up conversations of random people walking by.  It could also pick up announcements over the PA.  Works watching Thai language TV as well.

 

It seems smart enough to know when someone is still talking and when they pause, so if someone rambles on for awhile it will keep listening and translating and not playback until they pause.  The app shows the real-time translation feature as "limited time free".  So looks like they plan to charge for it eventually.

 

This link explains the features.  It implies you need their Aerofit 2 earbuds but I have different ones and it still works the same as far as I can tell.

 

https://service.soundcore.com/article-description/Introducing-and-How-to-Use-AeroFit-2-s-AI-Translation-Features?ref=Home_Page

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, shdmn said:

I tried using Soundcore realtime translation in the Siam Pargon food court with lots of people around and lots of background noise.  It was easily able to pick up conversations a few feet away and translate them in real time.  Some of them were speaking quite fast.  Also was able to pick up conversations of random people walking by.  It could also pick up announcements over the PA.  Works watching Thai language TV as well.

 

It seems smart enough to know when someone is still talking and when they pause, so if someone rambles on for awhile it will keep listening and translating and not playback until they pause.  The app shows the real-time translation feature as "limited time free".  So looks like they plan to charge for it eventually.

 

This link explains the features.  It implies you need their Aerofit 2 earbuds but I have different ones and it still works the same as far as I can tell.

 

https://service.soundcore.com/article-description/Introducing-and-How-to-Use-AeroFit-2-s-AI-Translation-Features?ref=Home_Page

 

 

 

 

Handy in a massage shop when they're talking about the customers

5 hours ago, shdmn said:

I tried using Soundcore realtime translation in the Siam Pargon food court with lots of people around and lots of background noise.  It was easily able to pick up conversations a few feet away and translate them in real time.  Some of them were speaking quite fast.  Also was able to pick up conversations of random people walking by.  It could also pick up announcements over the PA.  Works watching Thai language TV as well.

 

Interesting.

 

I am quite looking forward to using the translation device I ordered and trying it out. It will be 2 to 3 weeks before it arrives.

 

In particular my hope is that it will allow me to actually understand and maybe participate a bit in Thai family chats and also with the occasional interaction with vendors in various shops.  i also hope to be able to use it to chat with our condo security guards, gardeners, maid, and Thai technicians who on occasion come to our condo unit to do maintenance or upgrades.

 

Hopefully , maybe with time, languages such as Thai language will be available 'offline' for translation. At present thou, based on the research that i conducted,  there is no device that supports offline Thai verbal translations.  If there is no offline 'dictionary', then all earbud translation devices require an internet connection either via one's smartphone (where earbuds connect to smartphone via bluetooth, and smartphone connects to the internet),.  Also some earbud devices come with a separate small unit (with processor) that connects to earbuds + to-internet (either wifi or with its own sim(?) ). 

 

Hence with internet required, it could mean in some shops where smartphone reception is weak, the translation won't be so good.  I guess i will learn which shops have that limitation.

 

I appreciate you passing on your experience.

 

17 hours ago, oldcpu said:

...

 

Hopefully , maybe with time, languages such as Thai language will be available 'offline' for translation. At present thou, based on the research that i conducted,  there is no device that supports offline Thai verbal translations.  If there is no offline 'dictionary', then all earbud translation devices require an internet connection either via one's smartphone (where earbuds connect to smartphone via bluetooth, and smartphone connects to the internet),.  Also some earbud devices come with a separate small unit (with processor) that connects to earbuds + to-internet (either wifi or with its own sim(?) ). 

 

Hence with internet required, it could mean in some shops where smartphone reception is weak, the translation won't be so good.  I guess i will learn which shops have that limitation.

 

I appreciate you passing on your experience.

 

 

Google translate works offline.  You just need to select the languages you want to download the relevant files.  The Thai language file is currently 82MB.  I know you already decided but, just sayin.

Why not learn Thai? I use Google translate for writing only. Learning to speak Thai was the best thing I ever did. 

25 minutes ago, Purdey said:

Why not learn Thai? I use Google translate for writing only. Learning to speak Thai was the best thing I ever did. 

 

Why didn't I think of that!  Such awesome practical adivce.

4 hours ago, Purdey said:

Why not learn Thai? I use Google translate for writing only. Learning to speak Thai was the best thing I ever did. 

No need with the development if AI translation 

14 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

No need with the development if AI translation

What a boring world it would be if I only learned things I 'needed' to learn. I prefer learning for enjoyment, which includes Thai language.

25 minutes ago, ColeBOzbourne said:

What a boring world it would be if I only learned things I 'needed' to learn. I prefer learning for enjoyment, which includes Thai language.

Up to you, i prefer other things

5 hours ago, Purdey said:

Why not learn Thai? I use Google translate for writing only. Learning to speak Thai was the best thing I ever did. 

 

Chatting with another (not on a forum) who has an audio translation device, they claimed such can also help one learn a language.

 

I can't confirm that myself - but i am just 'saying'. 

6 hours ago, shdmn said:

 

Google translate works offline.  You just need to select the languages you want to download the relevant files.  The Thai language file is currently 82MB.  I know you already decided but, just sayin.

 

My view ... why not use both ?  At least in my case, I am fortunate that the money is not an issue.

Smartglasses for translation:

 

Related to this topic ... but not quite the same ... i also looked briefly (but rejected) procuring smartglasses where some smartglasses provide both audio and image (via an integrated camera) translations.  

 

The short summary is - NOTHING in smartglasses for Thai translation appeals to me.

 

The long summary: 

 

Of course the BIG negative issue (at least big for me)  is typically such smart glasses look very clunky.  Very very clunky.

 

The second negative issue is most smartglasses do not provide Thai language translation of images/scenes observed with their camera.

 

I did find one smartglasses that supports Thai language (according to its list of functions):

https://www.itourtranslator.com/products/air-translation-glasses

 

However while for some languages the iTour Air support both audio and visual translation, its not clear that they support both. Who wants to gamble? 

 

Further, to say those iTour Air glasses look incredibly clunky (and dare i say 'ugly') would IMHO be an understatement.  Maybe thou, i am being too critical.

 

Which gets me to the third negative aspect, which was that while the iTour Air smartglasses cost somewhere around $400 US$ (on their non-Asia website) and I did not find them on  Lazada and the one's on Shoppee were listed for a TOTALLY insane price of 168,000 Thai baht (although maybe not the same smartglasses - but still, who would pay 168,000 THB ? ) ... .   [I note Ali-Express @ 38,000 THB for the iTour Air smartglasses is less than Shoppee, but still, crazy prices]

 

So for the moment, I am waiting for the Timekettle W4 pro earbuds to show up (mail order delivery) and for any sign/text translations, I will continue to use my smartphone's Google translate for both audio and images/text.  And after I have the Timekettle earbuds I plan to still use Google translate (with my smartphone camera) to translate text.

.

The TimeKettle W4 Pro earbuds that I ordered arrived earlier today. 

 

So I immediately downloaded the Timekettle app (from the Google playstore) to my Android phone (an old Samsung A53 5G) , paired the earbuds to my phone (using the Timekettle app) and started playing with them. I note the Timekettle app only gets a 2.8 out of 5 (?) on Google Playstore, which is a rather low score.  Frankly I have not played enough with the app to comment if it deserves such a low score. The app has worked for me thus far.

 

The 1st thing the Earbuds insisted on doing, as soon as I paired them to my phone, was update the Earbud software. That took a few minutes.

 

I then tested the Earbuds for Thai-English translations (with help from my Thai wife).  To say they are superior to Google translate is a MASSIVE understatement. They are far superior to Google translate. I tried the "Listen and Play" which worked, albeit one disappointing aspect for me was for me to speak (and have my words translated to Thai) I had to press the 'speak' button on my phone (or possibly press a speak button on the earbuds - I need to learn that).  Then to listen I need to press back to 'listen' (I think).  I need to play with this more as I think I an simply tap on the earbud in the appropriate location instead of tapping on the phone.

 

The "one on one" mode of these earbuds thou, is pretty good.  I kept the right earbud on my ear, and passed the left earbud to my wife and she placed it on her left ear. Note these Timepro W4 pro earbuds do NOT go in the ear canal. They rest outside the ear. So they don't get 'dirty' and the 'cleanliness' concerns that I initially had are simply nothing to be concerned about.

 

On one-on-one they work pretty good for Thai-English (accurate translation), with some 'limitations' that I will describe.  

 

Thai-English is NOT one of the offline languages. One needs an internet connection to one's smartphone for the Thai-English translation to work.

 

I have fibre optic with a very fast internet in my condo in Phuket, and still, there was about an 8 to 10 second pause after I started speaking before the translation to Thai started (and visa versa). 

 

However its not as bad as that sounds. 

 

If one deliberately inserts a second pause (and multiple brief pauses) in one's speech, the Earbuds will use that as a cue to start the translation process.  This means I could talk continuous for minutes (with only short pauses or sentence breaks in my 2 minute chat) and the Thai translation would only lag from the English language start by 8 to 10 seconds.  Hence 8 to 10 seconds after I completed my 2 minute talk, the earbuds (where the Earbuds didn't wait for me to finish, but rather they started translating 8-to-10-seconds after the first pause (or sentence end) after I STARTED talking) would finish the translation about 8 to 10 seconds AFTER I finished talking.   The earbuds do NOT wait for me to finish talking (to translate) and they continue translating even thou I  continue speaking.

 

To get the most out of them thou, in the one-on-one mode, it helps if one deliberately inserts a second or two pause between sentences and also even short pauses during sentences, as this really enables the translation to do a better job.  I suspect the more 'brief' pauses one inserts the better.

 

Note this is only after 30 minutes of playing with them. Hopefully I learn more in coming weeks.

 

I hope to try these out some more (with our maid, and maybe with our security guards, who only speak Thai).   

 

I hope to try out some other languages over the course of the next few months. But Thai-English is my main use, and thus far I am optimistic here.