Chat in English with someone who speaks French

Piou lets you write in English while your contact writes in French, from Montréal to Marseille: each message is translated on the reader's own device, and the original is always one tap away. Translation is part of Piou Premium (CA$7.99 a month in Canada, €4.90 in France, after a 7-day free trial) and keeps working offline once both languages are downloaded.

How it works between English and French

Neither of you has to switch languages. Piou detects the language of each message on the sender's phone and stores it as typed; translation happens on the reader's device. A “Translated” label sits under every translated message, and “Show original” displays the exact French, a good way to pick up vocabulary if you're learning.

All translation runs on the device:

• iPhone (iOS 18 or later): Apple's built-in translation.
• Android (8.0 or later): Google's ML Kit, with models downloaded to the phone.
• Web app (app.piou.chat): the open-source Bergamot engine with Firefox Translations models in the browser, or Chrome's built-in translation on desktop when available. English–French is a direct pair, with no language in between.

Translations never leave your device. The messages themselves are stored on Piou's servers, in their original language, for delivery and sync.

Translation is personal. With Premium, you read messages, polls, status text and voice messages in English; voice messages are transcribed, then translated, and the audio stays playable. On the free plan, French messages stay in French, and once a day per conversation a banner offers “Message in French — Tap to read it in English”. For your contact to read you in French, they need Premium as well, or a gift from you.

An example exchange

Megan lives in Ottawa; her partner's mother, Sylvie, lives in Québec City. The translations are illustrative; the exact wording depends on each device's engine.

• Sylvie writes: “Allô Megan! On fait un dîner chez nous dimanche à midi. Viens-tu avec Mathieu?”
  • Megan reads: “Hi Megan! We're having dinner at our place on Sunday at noon. Are you coming with Mathieu?”
• Megan writes: “We'd love to! Can I bring dessert?”
  • Sylvie reads: “Avec plaisir! Est-ce que je peux apporter le dessert?”
• Sylvie writes: “Pas besoin, j'ai fait une tarte au sucre. Juste vous autres!”
  • Megan reads: “No need, I made a sugar pie. Just you guys!”

Spot the trap: in Québec, dîner is the midday meal, so “dinner at noon” really means lunch. The time saved the day here; without it, Megan might have shown up at six.

Tips for writing to French speakers

• Greet, then ask. Especially in France, a message that opens with a greeting and ends with thanks reads as polite, while a bare request can feel curt. With a landlord or an office, “Hello Mr. Martin” and “Thank you, have a good day” go a long way.
• Know the tu/vous line. French has a familiar tu and a formal vous. In France, vous is the safe default with people you don't know well; in Québec, tu comes much sooner. The engine picks one for your “you”, so keep a formal tone, with titles like “Madame Durand”, when it matters.
• Same word, different meal. In Québec, Belgium and Switzerland, déjeuner is breakfast, dîner lunch and souper dinner; in France, déjeuner is lunch and dîner dinner. When a meal time matters, write the hour.
• Numbers and dates. French writes the day first (03/04 is April 3), often uses the 24-hour clock (18 h 30 is 6:30 p.m.) and a decimal comma: 1 500,50 € is fifteen hundred euros and fifty cents. In Canada, both day-first and month-first dates are in use, so write the month in words.
• Texting shortcuts. “mdr” is lol, “stp” or “svp” please, “bcp” a lot, “tkt” don't worry; the translation may leave them untouched.
• “Bisous” is friendly. Many French speakers end messages to friends and family with bisous or bises (kisses). It's affectionate, not romantic.

Translation limits to know

• Québec French. Words like char (car), blonde (girlfriend), chum (boyfriend or buddy) or magasiner (to shop), and very informal spellings, may be translated literally or misunderstood.
• Gender. French marks gender: “I'm ready” is prêt or prête, “you're tired” fatigué or fatiguée. English rarely says which, so the engine guesses.
• Understatement and irony. “C'est pas mal” (literally “not bad”) can be genuine praise, and sarcasm rarely survives translation.
• Franglais. Piou detects one language per message, so a sentence mixing English and French may come back half-translated.
• Voice features depend on what your device's speech recognition supports for each language; strong accents and background noise lower accuracy.
• High stakes. For leases, medical visits, immigration, money or contracts, rely on a professional interpreter or a human translation. In an emergency, call 911 in Canada or 112 in France.

Getting started

1. Install Piou on an iPhone (iOS 18 or later) or an Android phone (8.0 or later), or open app.piou.chat and add it to your home screen: Safari → Share → “Add to Home Screen” on iPhone, Chrome → ⋮ → “Install app” on Android.
2. Create your account with Apple, Google or an email address, pick English, and verify your phone number once; it lets contacts find you and is never used to sign in.
3. Download English and French, preferably on Wi-Fi, so translation keeps working offline.
4. Find your contact under “Already on Piou”, or send an invite link or QR code.
5. Start the 7-day free trial. A card is required and nothing is charged for 7 days; the subscription then starts automatically at the displayed price unless you cancel first. To let your contact read you in French, use “Gift Piou to someone”.