Translate an email on a Mac and reply in another language
Select the email's text and press ⌃⌥T to read it in your language. To answer, write your reply in your own language, select it and choose Services › Translate and Replace with Kalila: the translation takes its place, ready to send. Everything happens on your Mac, so neither the email nor your reply goes to a translation service.
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Read an email in your language
- Open the email in Mail, or in your webmail in any browser.
- Select the text you want to read. To select the whole message, click in it and press ⌘A.
- Press ⌃⌥T. Kalila opens in the menu bar with the translation and the detected language.
Write your reply in another language
- Click Reply and write your answer in your own language.
- Select what you wrote.
- Control-click it, open Services and choose Translate and Replace with Kalila.
- Read it through, fix names and anything that sounds odd, and send.
Kalila works with a language pair you set once, for example English and Spanish: text in your language is translated into the other one. To double-check a reply, select the translation and press ⌃⌥T: Kalila translates it back.
Version 0.2.3 · macOS 26.4 or later · Apple Silicon
The built-in way
macOS can do the same with its own menu: select text, Control-click, choose Translate “…”, then Copy Translation or Replace with Translation. To keep it on your Mac, download the languages and turn on On-Device Mode in System Settings › General › Language & Region › Translation Languages. Kalila adds a shortcut, a window that translates as you type, and a history of what you translated.
Why not paste emails into an online translator?
An email often holds more than you think: names, phone numbers, addresses, the thread you are replying to. Online translators receive all of it. With Kalila the text is translated by Apple's on-device engine, and there is no server that receives it.
Questions
How do I translate an email to English on a Mac?
Select the text and press ⌃⌥T with Kalila, or Control-click it and choose Translate “…”. Both work in Mail and in webmail in any browser.
Does Translate and Replace work in webmail?
It works in any text field where the Services menu is offered for selected text, which includes Mail and most browsers. If you don't see it, translate with ⌃⌥T and copy the result into your reply.
Will my reply sound natural?
For everyday business email it is usually clear and correct. Read it once before sending, especially names, numbers and forms of address, which differ between languages.
Does it work offline?
Yes. Once the two languages are downloaded, you can read and answer email in another language with no connection, for example on a flight.
Is it free?
Yes. Kalila for Mac is free, with no account. It needs macOS 26.4 or later on a Mac with Apple Silicon.
Related
- Translate selected text on a Mac with a keyboard shortcut
- How to translate on a Mac
- Is online translation safe for confidential documents?