# Waygo - Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Translator — Instant and Offline for Travel

> Offline visual translator for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean text using your camera. (iPhone/iPad app by Translate Abroad.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/waygo-chinese-japanese-and-korean-translator/id496038103 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Translate Abroad](https://appshunter.io/developer/460879868)
- Category: Travel, Utilities
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 3.20/5 from 132 App Store ratings · 198 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 8.0 · 54 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2012-03-10
- Data updated: 2026-09-09
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/waygo-chinese-japanese-and-korean-translator/id496038103/reviews.md

## What is Waygo?

Waygo is the award winning leader in visual translation services, your offline travel translator and dictionary app for Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Our technology allows you to hover your phone's camera over foreign text and instantly translate and read that text in English. 

Real customer reviews:
"It was my 'Life Saver' in my trip to China..."
"Using it now in Japan!. So worth the cost of unlimited translations..."
"A must for travel to China..."
"Happy User. Perfect! Very Useful!"

Perfect for travel in China, Japan and Korea, you can instantly read text using our visual translator and learn the language. No data connection needed. Translate Chinese, Japanese or Korean into English offline when traveling in Asia.

Why should I choose Waygo?

- Free to download and try with all languages and features included 
- Instant offline OCR and translation that we built from the ground up
- Chinese, Cantonese, Japanese, Kanji, Korean
- Use your video camera as a visual translator or dictionary
- No data connection required
- Translate any menu or sign and never feel lost in translation again 
- See pictures of the food dish you are translating (Chinese only)
- See and hear the pronunciation of the words
- Simply point and translate foreign text to English
- Share your translations through SMS, Facebook, Twitter and Email

We have been featured repeatedly in ABC News, The New York Times, TechCrunch, The Next Web, BBC, Tech In Asia, GigaOm, Forbes, Technode, e27 and VentureBeat. 

This free trial is limited to 10 daily translations. Select your language from the top menu. Upgrade to unlimited translations through the in app purchases in the settings menu. 

Waygo Camera Translator is compatible with iOS devices running iOS 8.0 and up, as long as they have a rear-facing camera.

TIPS
1. Best used on clear Chinese, Japanese and Korean text (currently does not recognize stylized fonts or handwriting)
2. Intended for use on printed text, not computer screens
3. Designed for clear menus, signs and labels, not books or complicated text
4. If the text is small, hold the phone further away and use the zoom to translate more clearly
5. If text is blurry, tap the screen to focus

SUPPORTED LANGUAGES
- Chinese (Simplified) to English
- Chinese (Traditional) to English
- Japanese to English
- Korean to English
- more coming soon!

Go to www.WaygoApp.com/menu to try Waygo translator now on a sample Chinese menu.

FOLLOW US
* Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/WaygoApp
* Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/WaygoApp

NOTE FROM THE DEVELOPERS
We appreciate your feedback. Please send any questions or suggestions to feedback@waygoapp.com

## Key features

- Offline visual translation
- Camera-based text recognition (OCR)
- Supports Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
- Translate menus and signs
- Hear word pronunciation
- See food dish images (Chinese only)

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| All Languages | $11.99 | one-time |
| One Week Use | $1.99 | one-time |
| Chinese | $6.99 | one-time |
| Japanese | $6.99 | one-time |
| Chinese | $2.99 | one-time |
| Japanese | $2.99 | one-time |
| Korean | $6.99 | one-time |
| Korean | $2.99 | one-time |


## What do users think of Waygo?

Overall sentiment: negative

**Pros**

- 🚀 Fast and accurate translations
- 👍 Useful for navigating menus and signs in China/Japan
- 👍 Offline functionality

**Cons**

- 🐛 Poor recognition of handwritten/stylized characters
- 🐛 Inconsistent and inaccurate translations
- 🔋 High battery consumption
- 💰 Expensive paid version

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Crashes on newer iOS versions
- Fails to recognize text even in ideal conditions
- Paid version not working as expected

**Most requested features**

- Support for more languages (e.g. Thai, Korean)
- Improved translation accuracy and consistency
- Unlimited free scans per day

## Recent user reviews (10 of 198)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/waygo-chinese-japanese-and-korean-translator/id496038103/reviews.md

### 1/5 — Useless

*2025-04-12, version 6.17*

This app it’s useless doesn’t translate anything in Japanese.
I’m very disappointed.
Please refund my money now.

### 1/5 — Does not work

*2025-03-18, version 6.17*

Tried using the app multiple times, but it always says it can’t find any Japanese text between the brackets.

### 1/5 — Useless

*2024-11-29*

Doesn’t work! The text box says there’s no test when there clearly is. If I just point the camera for an instant translation, it’s just a jumble of flickering words which are meaningless. What rubbish!

### 1/5 — Crashes quite often

*2023-11-11*

Short text in Chinese in vertical columns is translated as horizontal text. Pure nonsense. 
No way to switch to vertical mode - app crashes.

### 1/5 — Would rate this a zero if I could!! Such a waste!!

*2023-08-08*

I got this app because my grandmas mom gave her this vase years ago and it has Chinese letters on it and we don’t know what it says. Once I got the app it immediately took me to a button that said free trial. I went along with it and took the picture of the vase and it didn’t translate!! I pressed the button translate and it kicked me out of the entire app!! Don’t get this app!!

### 5/5 — Schlägt die Brücke zum Japanischen

*2022-04-16*

Eine super App um sich im japanischen Umfeld zurecht zu finden!

### 1/5 — lol doesn’t work

*2020-12-28, version 6.17*

I tried translating japanese characters on a mask that had Kokichi Ouma on it and all it did was translate everything that wasn’t Japanese 😃

### 1/5 — Doesn’t even work for one character translation

*2020-10-04*

I don’t know why it won’t even translate single characters. It keeps telling me there is no text in the box no matter how clear the picture is, or where I space it between the orange brackets. And this is a single typed character on a white piece of paper to test the app. It’s way too finicky for me to bother with.

### 1/5 — Not in Macau

*2020-09-18*

I really want this to work. I paid for it. Yet it just doesn’t, it’s so disappointing.

### 2/5 — An okay app

*2020-05-21*

I use Waygo for chinese, I understand that it is a hard app to make but the charge for the premium version is too much and if you don’t get it you only get 10 translations a day a poor amount when translating lots of text. As well as this the translations are usually incorrect.

## Frequently asked questions about Waygo

### What does Waygo do?

Waygo is an offline visual translator app that allows you to point your phone's camera at foreign text and instantly see the translation in English. It supports Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, making it ideal for travelers.

### What are the key features of Waygo?

Key features include instant offline OCR and translation, support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages, the ability to use your camera as a visual translator, and no data connection requirement. It also offers pronunciation of words and images of food dishes for Chinese translations.

### How much does Waygo cost?

The app is free to download and try with a limit of 10 daily translations. You can upgrade to unlimited translations through in-app purchases.

### What devices is Waygo compatible with?

Waygo Camera Translator is compatible with iOS devices running iOS 8.0 and up, provided they have a rear-facing camera.

### When is Waygo most useful?

Waygo is most useful when traveling in China, Japan, or Korea and needing to translate printed text on menus, signs, and labels offline. It is best used on clear, printed text and not stylized fonts, handwriting, or computer screens.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 6.17 — 2017-06-20

This update from Apple will improve the functionality of this app. No new features are included.

* Bug fixes

### 6.16 — 2016-11-23

* Fixed a bug in Capture and Library mode where no translations were returned if there was a cloud server error
* Other bug fixes

### 6.15 — 2016-11-04

* Bug fixes

### 6.14 — 2016-10-20

* Expanded Help view with FAQ and videos
* You can now clear your translation history
* Bug fixes

### 6.13 — 2016-10-11

* Fixed a crash when new users were selecting their first language
* Bug fixes

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-09.*