Google is making its Translate app a little more useful for situations where you don’t want to keep staring at your phone. The company has announced two updates to Live Translate: Android users can now keep translations running in the background, while iPhone users can hear translated audio directly through the phone’s earpiece.

The Android update is aimed at longer Live Translate sessions. Google says more than a third of Live Translate sessions now run for longer than five minutes, making it more useful to keep the feature running while doing something else.

With the new background support, Android users can leave the Translate app while Live Translate continues working. The feature also keeps running when the phone’s screen is locked, allowing users to listen to translations without keeping the display turned on.

That could make a difference in situations such as listening to a guided tour, following a longer conversation, or keeping up with spoken information while using another app. Instead of treating Translate as something that needs to remain open on screen, the update makes it behave more like an always-available audio translation tool.

Google hasn’t yet brought the same background capability to iPhone. The company says iOS support is coming soon, but it hasn’t provided a specific release date.

The second update is arriving on iOS worldwide. Google Translate can now deliver Live Translate audio through the iPhone’s built-in earpiece, the small speaker at the top of the phone normally used for calls.

That means users don’t necessarily need headphones to hear a live translation. They can simply hold the iPhone to their ear, similar to taking a phone call, and listen to the translated speech privately. The same capability was already available on Android.

Google highlights noisy environments as one potential use case, including listening to announcements at airports or following along during crowded tours. It also means users can quickly listen to a translation without playing the audio through the phone’s main speaker for everyone nearby to hear.

The earpiece option builds on Google’s broader push to make Live Translate useful for real-world conversations and spoken information. The feature provides near-real-time audio translations across more than 70 languages.

Google has been expanding Live Translate throughout 2026. Earlier this year, the company brought its headphone-based Live Translate experience to iOS and expanded availability to additional countries. In June, Google also introduced Gemini 3.5 Live Translate, a speech-to-speech model designed to generate smoother translations while preserving characteristics such as a speaker’s intonation, pacing and pitch.

The latest Translate update is less about introducing another translation mode and more about making existing Live Translate sessions easier to use. Android users can now let translations continue while they multitask or lock their screens, while iPhone users get a more discreet way to listen without headphones.

For anyone using Google Translate while traveling, attending tours or trying to follow conversations in another language, those small changes could make Live Translate feel considerably less tied to the phone’s screen.