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How to Transcribe Audio in Multiple Languages on Your Android Phone (No Internet Required)

A developer released Off Grid AI Mobile, an Android app that runs Whisper speech recognition entirely on-device, letting users transcribe Hindi, Spanish, French and other supported languages without an internet connection. The app's model picker distinguishes multilingual models (marked "99 languages") from English-only versions such as base.en, and offers downloads ranging from a 75 MB Tiny model to a 1.55 GB Large v3. The guidance recommends starting with the 142 MB Base multilingual model and setting an explicit language for short recordings rather than relying on auto-detect.

by read5 min views2 publishedSep 29, 2026

You can turn Hindi, Spanish, French, and other supported languages into text on your Android phone without up your audio. Off Grid AI Mobile runs the speech model on your phone. Download it once, choose your language, and you can dictate with Wi-Fi and mobile data switched off.

Get Off Grid AI on Google Play | Latest Android releases The important setting is the transcription model. An English-only model will not become multilingual when you change your phone's language. You need a multilingual model, then the matching language setting inside the app.

Start with a small speech model. You do not need a large chat model just to convert speech into text. If you also want an AI reply or a summary, download a local text model for that separate step.

Open Model Settings, expand Transcription (Speech to Text), and select Transcription model.

In On-device models, look for a model marked 99 languages. The picker also lists English-only versions with the same short names. Read the language label before you download.

These are the sizes shown in the app's model catalog:

Multilingual model Approximate download When to try it
Tiny 75 MB A small first download to check your workflow
Base 142 MB A starting point for short notes and dictation
Small 466 MB A larger option to compare if Base misses words
Medium 1.5 GB For phones with more available memory
Large v3 Turbo 809 MB Another option to test for accuracy and speed
Large v3 1.55 GB A larger model when your phone has enough memory

These are download sizes, not total RAM requirements. The model needs additional working memory while it runs. A smaller file does not always mean faster transcription, either. Model design, your processor, and the recording all affect the result.

My suggested first choice is Base, 99 languages. Try your own voice and language before down a larger model.

The app uses Whisper for local speech recognition. If you encounter model filenames, versions ending in .en are English-only. For example, base.en and base have different language support. The whisper.cpp project documents the underlying engine and model options.

Open Chat Settings, expand SPEECH TO TEXT, and find Language.

Choose the language you plan to speak. You can also select Auto-detect with a multilingual model. This lets the model infer the language from the audio.

Use an explicit language for short recordings. A person's name or a two-word note gives automatic detection little context. If your first result is in the wrong language, check this setting before changing models. The options depend on the selected model. If the app only offers English, return to the transcription picker and check that you selected a multilingual version.

Transcription writes down speech in its original language. Translation is a separate task. To translate a transcript, send the reviewed text to a local chat model and request the target language.

For a first check, say a sentence you can verify easily. Include a day, a number, and a familiar place. For example, use the equivalent of "The workshop starts on Friday at ten" in your chosen language. Check the day and number closely. Those details matter more than whether the punctuation looks polished.

If you want an AI response while offline, make sure the active chat model is also on-device and already downloaded. Speech recognition and the model that answers you are separate choices. Record closer to the microphone. A clear voice gives the model more useful audio than a distant voice mixed with traffic or music.

Start with one language per short recording. Multilingual support does not guarantee reliable recognition of every language change inside a sentence. Check mixed-language notes before you use them.

Compare models on the same type of speech. Test a few similar sentences with Base and Small. Keep the model that gives you acceptable text without making your phone slow.

Check names and specialist terms. Company names, abbreviations, and uncommon words can need manual correction. A fluent-looking transcript can still contain the wrong word.

Free memory if fails. Close other memory-heavy apps or unload unused AI models. If the phone still struggles, choose a smaller transcription model.

With an on-device transcription model selected, the phone processes the microphone audio locally. It does not need a cloud speech API to return the words.

Keep the model selection local for this workflow. Off Grid AI also supports other connected workflows. Selecting a remote transcription service changes where the audio is processed. Sending the resulting text to a connected service is a separate action too.

The airplane-mode check gives you a direct way to confirm that this transcription workflow runs without internet after setup.

Local speech-to-text is part of the free app. Spoken AI replies are a separate text-to-speech feature in Pro. You do not need spoken replies to use dictation.

The multilingual speech models are listed as supporting 99 languages. The app's Language selector shows the available choices for your model. Hindi, Spanish, French, and English are among the options. Accuracy differs between languages, accents, and recordings.

Yes, once the app and the required local model are downloaded. Local transcription does not require a mobile data connection.

The speech model produces the transcript. Changing only the chat model does not change that recognition step. Select a different transcription model if you want to compare speech recognition results.

First check for an English-only model. Then check the selected language and microphone recording quality. Try a larger multilingual speech model if your phone has enough memory.

Install Off Grid AI Mobile, choose Base, 99 languages, and try a short recording with the internet switched off.

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