A church translation app nobody has to download

How it works on a Sunday

You start a session from any phone or laptop near a microphone — or plug into your sound desk. Vonal shows a QR code. Listeners scan it, pick their language, and follow along as live captions on their own phone, or hear translated audio through their own earbuds. When the service ends, you tap one button. That's the whole routine.

Try it yourself — right here

Press the mic, say a sentence the way you'd say it from the pulpit, and watch the translation appear. No sign-up, nothing to install.

Why "no app" matters for churches

Your listeners are visitors, elderly members, and people borrowing a phone — not tech staff. Every step between the door and the translation loses people. A QR code that opens a web page works on any phone, any age, any app store account, and it's gone when they close the tab. Nothing to update, nothing to delete.

What you get

• Live captions in 40+ languages at once — every listener picks their own
• Optional translated audio through the listener's own earbuds
• A time-stamped transcript after every service
• Built-in scripture & church vocabulary — all 66 books of the Bible, biblical names and places, and everyday church words, ready with no setup
• A custom dictionary for your pastor's name, ministries, and local terms
• Automatic pause after 10 minutes of silence — no wasted minutes

What it costs

Plans start at $20 a month, and your first hour is free so you can test it during a real service before spending anything. Compare that to a headset-based church translation system — hundreds to thousands up front, plus an interpreter every week — or a human interpreter at $50–$150 an hour.

A note on accuracy

General speech tools often stumble on words like Habakkuk, Thessalonians, or Gethsemane. Vonal comes tuned with hundreds of scripture and church terms, so readings and sermon topics come through more clearly from the very first service — and you can add your own words on top. It's been used live in churches since September 2025. It's a tool to widen the door — not a replacement for a trained interpreter on weighty pastoral moments.