Live Translation in Messages is the best AI feature in iOS 26, and Apple isn't even talking about it (www.techradar.com)

Apple quietly rolled out Live Translation as part of iOS 26’s Apple Intelligence suite — a seamless, real-time translation layer built into Messages, calls and FaceTime. Users pick a primary language, download the language pack, and incoming messages are delivered side-by-side in the original language and an instant translation. The feature also works for voice: during calls or FaceTime conversations it translates speech in real time (bidirectionally), with the experience improved when using AirPods Pro 3 or compatible models with ANC. The author’s hands-on testing with Italian, French and English found translations fast, accurate and conversationally fluid, and the feature is available on Apple Intelligence–compatible iPhones (not limited to iPhone 17). For the AI/ML community this matters because it demonstrates practical, low-latency multilingual inference tightly integrated into consumer communication pipelines. Whether Apple is doing on-device inference, edge-optimized models, or hybrid cloud-assisted processing, Live Translation showcases advances in speech-to-speech and text translation latency, contextual consistency, and UX design (showing original + translated text, seamless call integration). The result is a real-world testbed for scalability, privacy trade-offs, and multilingual model robustness — and a sign that translation models are maturing from standalone apps to native OS-level features that can materially change how people communicate across languages.