Turn what you hear into what you can say.
A small floating panel puts live captions, with translations, over whatever is playing on your Mac: a video, a meeting, a podcast. It keeps every line, so later you can replay it sentence by sentence, write it down from memory and turn it into a short course.
- macOS 14.2 or later
- Live captions need macOS 26
- Free and open source
- I used to focus on the final score. 我以前只盯着最后的比分。
- These days, I try to get a little better every day. 现在，我尝试每天进步一点。
- Showing up matters more than having one perfect session. 坚持到场，比某一次练得完美更重要。
- When I make a mistake, I try to learn from it. 犯了错，我会试着从中吸取经验。
- The goal is not to be perfect, but to stay consistent. 目标不是完美，而是坚持。
- Progress takes patience, especially when things get difficult. 进步需要耐心，尤其是在困难的时候。
- That mindset helps me outside the gym, too. 这种心态在训练场外也帮到了我。
- I have been working on explaining my ideas more clearly. 我一直在练习更清楚地表达想法。
- It takes practice, but I am getting more comfortable. 这需要练习，但我越来越自在了。
How it works
By day the panel sits over whatever you're listening to. In the evening, at your desk, the lines you kept become practice.
- 1
Hear
Live captions over any app, or a Voice Memo from your iPhone.
- 2
Keep
Every session saved line by line, with times, translations and, if you like, the audio.
- 3
Listen closely
Replay, slow down, loop a sentence, take dictation.
- 4
Learn
Turn a session into a course: words, phrases, blanks, shadowing, retelling.
- 5
Say
Review with spaced repetition; record yourself speaking.
What's in the app
Live captions over anything
System audio or the microphone, captioned as you listen, with a translation under each line. Recognition and translation run on your Mac with Apple SpeechAnalyzer and Translation (macOS 26).
Voice Memos from your iPhone
Tinglang lists the recordings on this Mac, including the ones synced from your iPhone through iCloud, ticks today's new ones and transcribes them into History by the time they were recorded.
Close listening and dictation
A player with video, ±5 s, 0.6–1.5× speed and A–B loops, by hand or per sentence. Tap a line to jump to it.
Courses from what you heard
Turn a session into a course and learn it with blind listening, shadowing, retelling and a short quiz, always against the original audio.
Review and speak
Expressions you save come back with FSRS-6 spaced repetition. Speak is a place to record yourself and keep notes.
Share files, not accounts
Export a recording or a course as a .tinglang file and send it however you like; import the ones others send you. There is no sharing server.
How Tinglang compares
Other tools people use to learn English by listening, and what each one does according to its own website.
| Tinglang | macOS Live Captions | Immersive Translate | Trancy | Language Reactor | 每日英语听力 (Eudic) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Mac app | Built into macOS | Browser extension, mobile apps | Browser extension, mobile app | Browser extension | Mac and iPhone app |
| Where it works | Any app's sound, or the mic | Any app's sound, or the mic | YouTube, Netflix and other video sites | YouTube, Netflix and other video sites | Netflix, YouTube and web pages | Its own library and files you add |
| Captions made from speech | Yes, on your Mac | Yes, on your Mac | Yes, for videos without subtitles | Paid plan, YouTube, in the cloud | Pro plan, on Netflix | Yes, for files you add |
| Translation under each line | Yes, on your Mac | Not offered | Yes | Yes | Yes | Where the article has one |
| Keeps what you heard | Every line, with times and translations | Not offered | Subtitle export (SRT, ASS) | Subtitle export | — | Subtitle export |
| Dictation | Yes, compared word by word | Not offered | — | Yes, in practice mode | — | — |
| Spaced-repetition review | Yes, FSRS-6 | Not offered | — | Flashcards | PhrasePump; export to Anki | Through the Eudic wordbook |
| Your own AI key | Yes, 18 presets, local models too | Not offered | Yes | Yes, on the top plan | — | — |
| Price | Free | Free, built in | Free, paid Pro plan | Free, paid Premium plan | Free, paid Pro plan | Free, paid VIP plan |
Tinglang's live captions and transcription need macOS 26. macOS Live Captions needs a Mac with Apple silicon.
— means the product's own pages don't say. Based on each product's official website, checked 23 October 2026. Product names belong to their owners.
Sources
- macOS Live Captions
- Immersive Translate
- Trancy
- Language Reactor
- 每日英语听力 (Eudic)
No account. No tracking. No server of ours in the loop.
Everything lives in one folder
Sessions, courses, practice, review and settings are in one SQLite file, next to your media and recordings. To back up, quit Tinglang and copy the folder.
Online for two things only
AI providers you added, when you generate a course or test the connection, and YouTube clips in the official embedded player. Both are labelled where they run.
Speech stays on the Mac
Speech recognition and translation run on your Mac. The first time, macOS may download its speech and translation assets, and asks you first.
~/Library/Application Support/dev.eeeease.sayloom/Sayloom/
├── sayloom.sqlite
├── media/
└── recordings/Bring your own AI provider
AI courses use a provider you add, with your own key, and only when you start one. You see the estimated cost first, and Tinglang asks before it sends a transcript to a cloud host. The basic course needs no provider at all.
18 presets
- Anthropic (Claude)
- OpenAI
- DeepSeek
- Alibaba DashScope (Qwen)
- Moonshot (Kimi)
- Z.ai (GLM)
- Volcengine Ark (Doubao)
- MiniMax
- Google Gemini
- xAI (Grok)
- Mistral
- Groq
- Together AI
- Fireworks AI
- OpenRouter
- LiteLLM Proxy
- OllamaRuns on your Mac
- LM StudioRuns on your Mac
Questions
Is Tinglang free?
Yes. The app is free and open source under the GNU AGPL v3.0 only. Pro is an optional subscription for cloud allowances from the official cloud service, which isn't live yet, and priority support.
Do I need an account?
No. Everything in the app works without signing in, with no tracking and no server of ours in the loop. An account is only for Pro and, later, the official cloud service.
Where can I download it?
There are no prebuilt downloads yet. For now you build it from source on your Mac; the download page has the steps.
Which version of macOS do I need?
macOS 14.2 or later. Live captions and transcription currently need macOS 26, because they use Apple SpeechAnalyzer and Translation. On macOS 14.2–15 everything else works; on-device captions for older systems are planned.
Does my audio leave my Mac?
No. Speech recognition and translation run on your Mac. The app goes online for two things only: AI providers you added, when you generate a course or test the connection, and YouTube clips in the official embedded player.
Build Tinglang on your Mac
There are no prebuilt downloads yet. You need macOS 14.2 or later, full Xcode, fvm and Python 3.10+.
git clone https://github.com/eeeease/TingLang.gitcd TingLangfvm installbash scripts/run_macos.sh