Chat in English with someone who speaks Spanish

Piou lets you write in English while your contact writes in Spanish: each message is translated on the reader's own phone, into their language, and the original stays one tap away. Translation comes with Piou Premium ($5.99 a month in the US, after a 7-day free trial) and keeps working offline once both languages are downloaded.

How it works between English and Spanish

You type in English, your contact types in Spanish, and nobody has to switch. Piou detects the language of each message on the sender's phone and stores it exactly as written. The translation happens on the reader's device: under a translated message you see “Translated”, and “Show original” reveals what was actually typed.

No cloud translation service is involved. The engine depends on the device:

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

Translations never leave the device. The messages themselves are stored on Piou's servers, in their original language, so they can be delivered and synced.

Translation is also personal. With Premium, you read everything in English: messages, polls, the text of status updates, and voice messages, which are transcribed and translated while the original audio stays playable. On the free plan, you'd see your contact's messages in Spanish, with a banner once a day per conversation offering “Message in Spanish — Tap to read it in English”. Your contact needs Premium to read you in Spanish, which is why Piou suggests gifting it when only one of you has it.

An example exchange

Emily, a mom in Houston, writes to Rosa, who picks up her son after school. The translations below are illustrative; the exact wording depends on each device's engine.

• Emily writes: “Hi Rosa! Could you stay until 6:30 tomorrow? We have a parent-teacher conference.”
  • Rosa reads: “¡Hola, Rosa! ¿Podrías quedarte mañana hasta las 6:30? Tenemos una reunión de padres y maestros.”
• Rosa writes: “Sí, claro. ¿Le doy la cena a Mateo o cenan juntos cuando lleguen?”
  • Emily reads: “Sure. Should I give Mateo dinner, or will you all eat together when you get home?”
• Emily writes: “Dinner would be great. Thanks a million!”
  • Rosa reads: “La cena sería genial. ¡Mil gracias!”

Two details are worth noticing. The engine turned “could you” into the familiar “podrías” (tú); another sentence might come out with the formal usted. And Rosa's “cenan” is plural: in Latin America, ustedes is the everyday “you all”, so English gets “will you all”.

Tips for writing to Spanish speakers

• Open with a greeting. “Hi Rosa, good morning!” before a request reads warmer in Spanish than a bare instruction, and many Spanish speakers find a message without one a little abrupt.
• Get names right. Many Spanish speakers have two surnames, father's then mother's: María José García López is “Ms. García”, and María José is one first name, not “María”.
• Spell out dates. Spanish-speaking countries write the day first, so 03/04 means April 3. Write “April 3” and the translation can't flip it.
• Say which currency. In Mexico, Colombia, Chile or Argentina, “$” usually means pesos. Write “US dollars” or “pesos” whenever money is involved.
• Ask for a time. In Mexico, “ahorita” can mean “right now” or “in a little while”, and the translation tends to choose “right now”. If timing matters, ask for an hour.
• Expect voice notes. In many Spanish-speaking families, a voice note is the default way to chat. With Premium they arrive as translated text, and you can still play the voice.

Translation limits to know

• Tú, usted and gender. English marks neither formality nor grammatical gender, so the engine guesses. A woman writing “I'm exhausted” may come out with the masculine “agotado”, and the tú/usted choice may not match your relationship.
• Missing accent marks. In Spanish, accents change meaning: “si” means “if” and “sí” means “yes”; “esta” is “this”, “está” is “is”. A message typed without them can be mistranslated, so if something reads oddly, just ask.
• Regional vocabulary. “Guagua” is a bus in Puerto Rico or the Canary Islands and a baby in Chile or Peru. Slang and Argentine “vos” forms can also trip up the translation.
• Spanglish. Each message is detected as a single language, so a sentence that switches halfway may come back half-translated.
• Idioms and humor. “Touch base” or “break a leg” may arrive word for word, and irony is easy to lose. Plain, complete sentences translate best.
• Voice features depend on what your device's speech recognition supports, and strong accents or background noise lower accuracy.
• High stakes. For medical, legal, immigration, money or contract questions, rely on a professional interpreter or a human translation. In an emergency, call 911 in the US and Mexico, or 112 in Spain.

Getting started

1. Install Piou on an iPhone with iOS 18 or later or an Android phone with Android 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, choose English, and verify your phone number once. It lets your contacts find you; it's never used to sign in.
3. Download English and Spanish on Wi-Fi so translation also works offline.
4. Add your contact from “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 unless you cancel first. If you want your contact to read you in Spanish, tap “Gift Piou to someone”.