Today we are officially launching Linguin — an AI-powered translation tool built around a simple premise: translation should feel like part of your workflow, not an interruption to it.
We built Linguin because we were frustrated with every translation tool that existed. Copy-pasting into web apps breaks your reading flow. Browser extensions that replace entire pages produce output that feels robotic and hard to trust. Dedicated desktop tools feel heavy and slow for quick lookups. And none of the options we tried felt like they truly understood what we were reading — they translated strings of words, not meaning.
Linguin is our answer to all of that.
What Linguin Is
Linguin is an AI translation platform available as a Mac app, iPhone app, and Chrome extension. It is designed for people who regularly encounter content in multiple languages — whether that means reading foreign news, communicating with international clients, translating documents, studying a language, or browsing the web in your second language.
The translation engine uses modern neural AI models tuned for contextual accuracy. The difference between context-aware translation and word-for-word substitution is most visible in sentences with ambiguous words, idiomatic expressions, or formal-to-casual register shifts. Linguin translates the way a bilingual colleague would explain something, not the way a dictionary would render it.
Support covers 100+ languages including all major European languages, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, and dozens of regional languages. For the language pairs most people encounter in daily work and browsing, the accuracy is production-ready.
The Mac App
The Linguin Mac app lives in your menu bar. It is always one keystroke away from whatever you are doing — no switching windows, no opening a browser tab, no disrupting your focus.
Key features at launch:
Instant text translation. Paste any text or type it directly into Linguin and get an accurate translation in seconds. The input can be as short as a single word or as long as several paragraphs.
Document translation. Drag a PDF or Word document onto the Linguin window and it translates the entire document while preserving the original layout — tables, headers, columns, and text formatting all intact. This is one of the hardest technical problems in translation tooling and we have worked hard to get it right.
Translation history. Every translation you run is saved locally and fully searchable. If you translated a contract clause last month and need to revisit how a phrase was rendered, it is one search away.
Keyboard shortcuts. Translate selected text from any application — your email client, your code editor, your note-taking app — without switching focus. Highlight, press the shortcut, read the translation in a small overlay, continue working.
100+ language support. Full coverage of major world languages plus dozens of regional ones. The language picker includes a recent languages list so you are not scrolling through the full catalogue for every translation.
The Chrome Extension
The Linguin Chrome extension brings the same translation quality into your browser without the friction of copy-pasting or leaving the page.
Full-page translation. Click the Linguin toolbar button on any foreign-language page and the entire page translates instantly, preserving the original layout. Menus, headings, body text, captions — everything translates in place.
Inline selection translation. Highlight any text on a page and a small Linguin button appears. Click it to see the translation in a popup next to the original text. The page remains untouched; you just understand the part you needed.
Per-domain language memory. Linguin remembers your language preference per website. If you always read French news in English, Linguin will automatically offer the translation the next time you visit that domain.
Auto-detect source language. Linguin identifies the source language automatically, so you never need to specify what you are reading — just where you want it translated to.
For a full setup and usage guide, see our Chrome extension walkthrough.
The iPhone App
Translation on the go is a fundamentally different use case from translation at a desk. The Linguin iPhone app is designed for the moments when you need fast, reliable translation without fuss.
Tap-and-translate from any app. The share extension lets you send text to Linguin from Safari, Mail, Notes, and any other app that uses the standard iOS share sheet. No switching apps, no copy-paste.
Camera translation. Point your iPhone camera at a sign, menu, label, or document and Linguin overlays the translation on screen in real time. This is powered by the same neural models as the text translation, so the quality is consistent.
Offline mode for common languages. Core language pairs work without an internet connection, which matters when traveling internationally without data.
History sync. Translation history syncs between your iPhone and Mac so your lookups are always available regardless of which device you used.
Why We Built This Now
The gap between how good AI translation technology has become and how well that technology is integrated into everyday workflows has never been larger. The underlying models — the ones that do the actual language conversion — are remarkable. The products wrapping them have not kept up.
Linguin is not a new translation model. It is a product that gets the best available translation technology out of the way of your actual work. The interface should feel invisible. The translation should feel natural. The whole thing should make you wonder how you worked without it.
We are launching with Mac, iPhone, and Chrome because that is where our own work happens and where we have been able to build the most seamless integration. More platforms are on the roadmap.
What Is Coming Next
This release is the foundation. Here is what we are actively building toward:
Firefox extension — broader browser support for users who do not use Chrome-based browsers.
Team and collaboration features — shared translation history, glossaries, and terminology management for teams with consistent translation needs.
API access — a clean API so developers can integrate Linguin’s translation quality into their own products and workflows.
Deeper OS integration — tighter integration with macOS services and iOS shortcuts to make translation accessible from even more contexts without switching apps.
Additional document formats — expanded support for presentations, spreadsheets, and ebook formats beyond PDF and Word.
Get Started
Linguin is free to get started with. Download the Mac app or install the Chrome extension, connect your iPhone, and try it on the content you actually work with every day. No credit card is required to start.
We have spent a long time on this and we are proud of what we have built. We are also just getting started. If you have feedback, feature requests, or you just want to tell us how it is going, reach us at hello@linguin.app.
Welcome to Linguin.