I Tested InnAIO's AI Voice Translator as a Bilingual Speaker: Here's What I Found

For the past 9 years in Japan,  I’ve tried just about every translation app and gadget that promises to bridge the language gap. Most of them felt like gimmicks and ended up being eclipsed by LLM-based translation. So when I got my hands on the InnAIO translator, complete with its AI-powered voice cloning and compact unit that sticks to the back of your phone, I was skeptical.

But I was wrong.

Here’s what happened when I tested the InnAIO device for English↔Japanese / Japanese↔English translations—both the good and the not-so-polished.

Performance

With the external one-touch unit, InnAIO is fast. Like, faster-than-Google-Translate-app fast.

Tap the button, talk, and it spits out a translation as soon as your finger even leaves the device. No app loading time. No searching through folders. No keyboard. No UI. Just press, speak, done.

It might not sound like much, but when you're navigating Tokyo’s subway system or trying to explain dietary restrictions at a local restaurant, shaving off three taps and two swipes actually does make a huge difference. Imagine hundreds/thousands of these quick interactions when you’re traveling or living abroad, and a few seconds saved becomes many hours of your life back.

Specs

Translation Accuracy: Same Level as Google, With One Catch

Typed text translations? Identical to Google Translate.

That’s both a compliment and a slight concern. For example, both InnAIO and Google translated one of my test sentences incorrectly—but the error was cultural, not grammatical. In other words, it didn’t “get” the nuance of how certain things translate from English to Japanese.

In many English-speaking countries, we might say "Hey," to a cashier or shop clerk at the register. It is a casual light greeting for politeness.

In Japan, ねえー (ne~)　is very casual and something you'd only say to a close friend or family member. While that may be a straight translation of the phrase, it's never something Japanese people would say when making an order at a shop or restaurant.

Interestingly, ChatGPT got the translation nuance spot on:

That said, if you’re translating menus or travel directions from english to Japanese, you should be fine.

The External One-Touch Unit: I Thought It Was Dumb… Until I Used It

To be honest, when I first saw the one-click InnAIO attachment, I thought it was a gimmick.

It’s just a tiny metallic plastic button unit that sticks to the back of your phone. The real power is in the app, right? So what’s the point?

Turns out, the point is convenience.

Using InnAIO means no more swiping screens to find the translate app, and tapping around to start voice input. Instead, just hold the button and speak, regardless of where you are on your device.

It removes just 2–3 steps, but it’s those exact steps that get frustrating when you’re abroad and translating multiple times a day.

Downsides? You can’t use a ring holder or any other back attachment. But the button is magnetically removable, so if you’re not expecting to use translation for a while, you can remove it easily and put your ring stand or card case back on. Just don’t expect to swap between accessories on the fly.

Here is how much space it takes up on the back of an iphone 15

Pikachu didn't seem to mind!

Standout Feature: 35-Second Synthetic Voice Cloning

Without a doubt, the synthetic voice feature is the biggest technological breakthrough of this device.

InnAIO lets you clone your voice in just 35 seconds. Just read one paragraph of audio, and you’ve got an eerily accurate synthetic version of yourself speaking translations.

I’ve been around AI since 2019. I used ChatGPT back when it was called GPT-2. 

For synthetic voice cloning, I was there when the first consumer-friendly platforms launched. Descript was the standout back then, but it took hours of recording and re-recording to get right. Recently, I tried Coemo (a Japanese toy that reads bedtime stories in your voice), and InnAIO outclassed both in speed and voice realism. This was the closest I’ve ever heard to my actual voice being generated by a machine, and just in 35 seconds!! I wasn’t even trying hard to speak clearly or articulate, and it still performed very well.

This accuracy was good and fast enough that the company could make voice cloning a standalone service/product.

Now, rather than a stock robotic voice, the app can speak in another language using your actual voice and that’s quite cool!

The Bad: Japanese Pronunciation via AI Voice

While the English TTS (text-to-speech) voice was impressive, the Japanese voice—when using my synthetic clone—occasionally mispronounced words.

Example: I tested the Japanese word for “prescription” (処方箋). It should be pronounced “shou-ho-sen.”

My cloned voice said “sho-ho-kan.” That's not even close.

Interestingly, when I switched to InnAIO’s stock male voice, the pronunciation was perfect. So it’s not a vocabulary issue—it’s a synthesis issue. The AI voice might be misapplying phonetic rules, or maybe it's defaulting to Chinese-style readings of kanji.

Either way, if you're using your AI clone to speak Japanese, be cautious.

Insert screenshot example here

Japanese Voice Input: Not Great

When it comes to listening and understanding spoken Japanese input? InnAIO struggled.

The phrase I spoke was this しょこウーちゃんはとても素敵な妻さんです (Shoko-chan is a very wonderful wife). Google translate got it spot on, InnAIO not so much...

To be fair, I tested it with a name and phrase combo, but Google Translate got it right and InnAIO didn’t. So it’s not just a tricky sentence—it’s a speech recognition weakness for Japanese. After a few tries I did eventually get InnAIO to get it right.

English input, on the other hand, was fine.

Cross-App Translation: Game-Changer

Another killer feature, and main draw of the device, is InnAIO’s ability to translate within any app.

Open WhatsApp, LINE, LinkedIn, or Messenger. Hold the InnAIO button. Speak in your language. It pastes the translation directly into the chat.

No switching between Google Translate and your messaging app. It just works.

One thing is if you keep “show original text on” you’ll have to delete that if you don’t want it to be obvious that you’re using a translator

Privacy Concerns

Because InnAIO operates over other apps, it obviously needs certain accessibility permissions.

I’m not a dev, but that kind of access always raises some red flags in terms of data collection and app monitoring. Worth keeping in mind before you go full-send with it.

Final Verdict

Translation-wise, InnAIO is on par with Google Translate, at least for written and spoken English and (for the most part) Japanese.

Voice recognition for Japanese needs work. And pronunciation when using cloned voices can misfire badly. But as a tool for travel, it’s faster, more convenient, and honestly more enjoyable to use than Google Translate.

I reviewed another translation device, Pocket Talk, on HackerNoon years ago. And if I were to compare, InnAIO takes the cake in terms of speed and convenience. So long as you have a decent data connection, it is the better product.

This isn’t a universal translator just yet. But it is a huge UX improvement over what we’ve been using—and sometimes that’s all you need to tip the scales. For $199 USD, that is a bit too steep to be worth it at the current iteration.

If they fix the voice pronunciation issues and improve Japanese voice input?

This could be the next-generation Pocketalk.

8/10 – Amazing potential, just needs polishing.