Migrate from Google Translate
If you've used Google Translate for travel and want to move to on-device, this is the practical guide. We'll walk through what to set up before you leave, what to expect on the trip, and what jobs you might still keep on Google.
Google Translate's voice and photo features need network. On a 2-week trip with international roaming, that's $50–200 you're spending on translation. Cove's offline-first design caps that to $3.99 once.
Google logs every translation request. For sensitive conversations (medical, legal, family), the privacy posture matters. Cove processes everything on-device — Google doesn't see what you're translating.
Subway tunnels, airplane mode, basement restaurants, mountain villages — Google Translate's offline mode is partial (text only, no voice/photo). Cove keeps full functionality offline.
Download the APK from /download. Free tier gives you 5 translations per day with no signup — enough to evaluate over a week before deciding on Pro.
First launch downloads the Gemma 4 model (~2 GB). Do this on your home Wi-Fi before you fly. Once downloaded, the model is shared across all 4 Cove apps — no re-download for Voice / Photo / Health later.
Turn on airplane mode and run a test translation. Compare to your usual Google Translate output. If quality is acceptable, you're set. If not, see step 4.
Cove handles common travel translation well. For long technical documents (contracts, medical reports) you may still want Google or DeepL with network. Decide which scenarios fall to which tool — don't assume Cove replaces 100% of your usage.
If you want to skip the download, drop the model file at /sdcard/GemmaApp/models/ before launching. Useful for shared family phones or if you're tight on Wi-Fi. See /help/model-download/ for details.
5 translations a day for free, no signup. Use it alongside Google Translate for a week and see which feels right for which scenario.
