Live Sermon Translation for Church Services
Multilingual congregations and visitors often miss most of the sermon. With LiveToka, a laptop connected to the sound system transcribes the pastor’s words and shows a live translation that can be projected on a screen.
New accounts get 10 free minutes. Sign in with Google — no credit card required.
Step by step
- Connect a laptop to the church sound desk (an audio output from the mixer into a USB audio interface), or place a microphone near the speaker.
- Open LiveToka, choose the preaching language as the source and the visitors’ language as the target.
- Click Start Service before the sermon begins.
- Show the translation on a projector, TV or livestream overlay for visitors to read.
Getting the audio in
LiveToka listens to your browser’s microphone input. In a room, the closer and cleaner the sound, the better the result:
- Best: a direct feed from the sound desk or mixer into a USB audio interface connected to the laptop. Select that interface as the microphone in your browser.
- Good: a USB or lapel microphone close to the speaker.
- Basic: the laptop’s built-in microphone near the speaker. Expect lower accuracy in large or echoing rooms.
To choose the microphone in Chrome, open chrome://settings/content/microphone (Edge: edge://settings/content/microphone).
Tips
- A feed from the sound desk is far more accurate than a laptop microphone in a large room with echo.
- Bible references, names and church-specific terms may need checking afterwards; save the transcript after each service.
- If the service switches between two languages, try the bilingual source modes (Mandarin & English, Spanish & English, Malay & English, Tamil & English).
- For music and worship songs, pause or expect less accurate results; recognition works best on speech.
Popular language pairs
More guides
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Frequently asked questions
Can one translation be shown to the whole congregation?
Yes. Put the LiveToka tab on a projector or screen so everyone reads the same translation.
Which languages are used most for churches?
English to Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean are common, but any of 100+ target languages can be chosen.
Is there a free trial?
Yes. New accounts get 10 free minutes after signing in with Google — no credit card. Transcription uses credits at 1× and translation at 2×, so that is up to 10 minutes of transcription or 5 minutes of translation. Paid plans start at $9.9/month.