Free tool
3GP translator
This 3GP translator takes the sound from a 3GP phone video, writes down what was said and translates it into subtitles in the language you choose, so an old family clip or a phone recording can be followed by someone who speaks another language.
- Free
- 3GP and 3G2
- The video stays on your device
Drop your 3GP video here, or Choose your 3GP video
MP4, MOV, M4V, MKV, 3GP or WebM video. Up to 30 minutes of each file, 3 free files a day.
Digitising old phone clips? NoteOwl transcribes their sound on your Mac with unlimited transcription and labels each speaker.
How it works
How do you translate a 3GP video?
Copy the 3GP off the phone, drop it here and choose the subtitle language. The page opens it like an MP4, decodes its AAC or AMR sound, has the speech transcribed and translated, and times the subtitles to the clip.
- 1
Copy the clip off the phone
Over USB with File Transfer, or from a memory card or an old backup.
- 2
Choose the language
Subtitles in English unless you pick another language. Up to 30 minutes of each clip.
- 3
Download
SRT or VTT to play beside the clip, or the subtitles in the language spoken.
Which browser should you use for a 3GP?
Safari on a Mac if the clip has AMR sound, which Android’s recording API has offered since its first release; any browser if it has AAC. In our test, Chrome couldn’t decode AMR, while Safari’s engine read every AMR file and cut each minute into three pieces.
- .3gp with AAC sound
- ChromeReads
- Safari’s engineReads
- .3g2 with AAC sound
- ChromeReads
- Safari’s engineReads
- .3gp with AMR-NB sound and a picture
- ChromeSound can’t be decoded
- Safari’s engineReads
- .3gp with AMR-NB sound only
- ChromeSound can’t be decoded
- Safari’s engineReads
| Clip | Chrome | Safari’s engine |
|---|---|---|
| .3gp with AAC sound | Reads | Reads |
| .3g2 with AAC sound | Reads | Reads |
| .3gp with AMR-NB sound and a picture | Sound can’t be decoded | Reads |
| .3gp with AMR-NB sound only | Sound can’t be decoded | Reads |
Can you subtitle an old family video for relatives abroad?
Yes. Translate the clip’s speech into their language, then send the SRT along with the 3GP; a player such as VLC shows the two together. The subtitles follow the speech, so each line appears as it’s said.
Does the clip’s tiny picture matter?
Not at all. The picture is never decoded: a 176×144 clip and a 320×240 one gave identical pieces of sound in our test. What matters is the speech, which older phones often recorded as AMR at 8 kHz, so check names and numbers against the original subtitles.
A whole minute of AMR sound took only 96 KB in our test file, which is why these clips are so small.
What if the 3GP has no picture?
It still translates. Some phone recorders save sound alone in a .3gp file, and the page treats it like any recording: you get the translated subtitles and their text to copy. A sound-only file with AMR needs Safari, just like an AMR video.
Archiving years of phone videos on a Mac?
Save each clip’s AAC sound as an M4A with the audio extractor, which copies it without re-encoding, and import the M4As into NoteOwl. It transcribes them on your Mac with unlimited transcription and labels each speaker. Only need the words? Use 3GP to text.
FAQ
Questions about translating 3GP videos
Is the 3GP translator free?
Yes. Without an account you can translate 3 clips a day, up to 30 minutes each, and download the subtitles in either format.
My 3GP won’t open in Chrome: what now?
Open this page in Safari on a Mac and drop the clip in again. It almost certainly has AMR sound, which Chrome can’t decode but Safari can.
Does it take .3g2 files too?
Yes. Our test .3g2 with AAC sound read in both Chrome and Safari’s engine, exactly like a .3gp.
Is my clip uploaded?
No. The browser separates the sound from the picture on your device; short pieces of the sound go to a cloud AI transcription service, the transcript’s text to a cloud AI translation service, and both discard what they receive. NoteOwl stores nothing.
Should I convert the clip to MP4 before translating?
There’s no need. The page opens 3GP directly, and converting it wouldn’t make old phone sound any clearer.
Keep exploring
More video translator tools
- Video translatorA free video translator: drop in a video and download subtitles in another language, timed to the speech, as SRT or VTT; only the sound is sent, nothing is stored
- WebM translatorTranslate a WebM video, such as a browser screen recording, free in your browser: translated subtitles; only the sound is sent, nothing is stored
- MP4 translatorTranslate an MP4 video free in your browser: translated SRT or VTT subtitles timed to the speech, plus the original; only the sound is sent, nothing is stored
- MOV translatorTranslate a MOV video from an iPhone or a Mac free in your browser: translated subtitles timed to the speech; only the sound is sent, nothing is stored
- M4V translatorTranslate an M4V video free in your browser: translated SRT or VTT subtitles; only the sound is sent, nothing is stored
Old phone clips, transcribed on your Mac
Free to download. Runs entirely on your Mac.
macOS 26 or later · Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) · 16 GB memory minimum, 24 GB recommended
About NoteOwl
NoteOwl is private AI meeting notes and memory for the Mac. It captures meetings without a bot joining the call, labels every speaker, writes summaries and action items, and builds a memory of every conversation that you can chat with — fully offline, because the speech recognition and the AI run on the Mac itself. Dictation into any app is free; Pro is a one-time purchase.
NoteOwl pricing: what’s free and what Pro adds
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