Chat in English with someone who speaks Turkish

With Piou, you write in English and your contact writes in Turkish. With Piou Premium, each Turkish message appears in English on your phone, translated on the device itself, and the original stays one tap away. For your contact to read you in Turkish, they need Premium too, or you can gift it to them.

How it works between English and Turkish

Piou detects the language of each message on the sender's phone and stores it exactly as written. Translation happens on the recipient's device, into the recipient's language. You read English, your contact reads Turkish, and nobody has to switch anything.

The engine depends on the device:

• iPhone: Apple's built-in translation, on iOS 18 or later.
• Android: ML Kit by Google, with models downloaded to the phone.
• Web app: the open source Bergamot engine with Firefox Translations models running in the browser, or Chrome's built-in translation on a computer when available. English and Turkish form a direct pair on the web.

Translated messages carry the label Translated; tap Show original to see exactly what was written. Translations never leave your device. The messages themselves are stored on Piou's servers in their original language so they can be delivered and synced.

Download the language packs once, ideally over Wi-Fi and before you travel. After that, translation and Face to face mode work offline: one phone between you and the other person listens, shows the translation and reads it aloud, and the other person doesn't need the app.

On the free plan, Piou is a complete messenger with chats, groups, voice messages, photos and calls, but messages appear in their original language. Premium adds automatic translation, voice messages transcribed and translated, translated subtitles during calls and Face to face mode.

What an exchange looks like

Jessica is renting an apartment in Istanbul from Mehmet. Here is roughly what each of them sees:

• Jessica writes: “Hi Mehmet, the hot water isn't working this morning. Could someone take a look today?” → Mehmet reads: “Merhaba Mehmet, bu sabah sıcak su çalışmıyor. Bugün biri bakabilir mi?”
• Mehmet replies: “Geçmiş olsun! Ustamız saat 14.00'te gelecek. Lütfen kombiye dokunmayın.” → Jessica reads: “May it pass! Our master will come at 14.00. Please don't touch the boiler.”

“Geçmiş olsun” is a set phrase for any trouble, from a cold to a broken boiler, closer to “sorry about that, hope it's sorted soon”. “Usta” is a respectful word for a skilled tradesperson, here the repairman, even if the translation says “master”. And “14.00”, with a dot, is simply 2 p.m.

Tips for chatting with Turkish speakers

• Use the polite forms that come with names. Many Turkish speakers address others by first name plus “Bey” for a man or “Hanım” for a woman, as in Mehmet Bey or Ayşe Hanım. Translation may turn this into “Mr. Mehmet”: it's courtesy, not a mistake.
• Know that “you” has two forms. Turkish uses the formal “siz” with people you don't know well, with elders and in business, and “sen” with friends and family. English “you” doesn't tell the translation which one you mean.
• Learn a few set phrases. “Kolay gelsin” to someone working, “Afiyet olsun” before or after a meal, “Elinize sağlık” to thank someone for food they made, “Geçmiş olsun” after any trouble. They don't translate well, but saying them yourself, out loud, is often much appreciated.
• Plan around religious holidays. The dates of Ramazan Bayramı and Kurban Bayramı change every year, and many businesses close or slow down. “İyi bayramlar” is the usual greeting.
• Read dates and times the Turkish way. Dates come day first, so 03.04 is April 3. Times use the 24-hour clock, often with a dot, and decimals use a comma.

Where translation can stumble

• No “he” or “she”. Turkish “o” means he, she or it. When translating into English, the engine has to guess, and it can get the gender wrong.
• Long words. Turkish adds suffixes one after another, so a single word can carry a whole sentence: “gelemeyecekmişsin” means roughly “apparently you won't be able to come”. A typo in such a word can throw the translation off.
• Names that are words. Deniz means “sea”, Umut “hope”, Barış “peace”, Yıldız “star”. “Deniz geliyor” may come out as “The sea is coming”.
• Formal or informal “you”. Your English may be rendered with “sen” or “siz”, and the choice can change between messages.
• Idioms, irony and jokes, plus slang, abbreviations and messages mixing Turkish and English, can come out wrong.

Getting started

1. Install Piou on iPhone (iOS 18 or later) or Android (8.0 or later), or use the web app at app.piou.chat.
2. Choose English as your language and let the languages download, ideally over Wi-Fi.
3. Invite your contact with a link, a QR code or from your address book.
4. Start the 7-day free trial to turn on translation. A card is required, nothing is charged for 7 days, and the subscription then starts automatically at the price shown unless you cancel before the trial ends.
5. Use Gift Piou to someone if you want your contact to read you in Turkish, and manage the gift later in Settings → Premium.