React Native ML Kit — Translation

@nitro-mlkit/translation · on-device Google ML Kit via Nitro Modules — JSI, no bridge.

⚠️ Beta (0.1.0-beta.x). Android verified on-device. iOS builds & links but device runtime is pending — see Platform status.

High-performance, on-device translation for React Native, built with Nitro Modules (JSI, no bridge).

Powered by Google ML Kit. Translate between 50+ languages, entirely on-device once the language model is downloaded. Language codes are BCP-47 (e.g. "en", "es", "fr", "de", "ja").

Installation

npm install @nitro-mlkit/translation@beta react-native-nitro-modules

No config plugin (autolinked Expo module). Just install and npx expo prebuild. Not available in Expo Go.

Usage

import { NitroTranslate } from "@nitro-mlkit/translation";

// Translate (downloads the required model on first use).
const out = await NitroTranslate.translate("Hello, world", "en", "es");
// → "Hola, mundo"

// Manage models explicitly.
await NitroTranslate.downloadModel("es", /* requireWifi */ true);
await NitroTranslate.isModelDownloaded("es"); // → true
await NitroTranslate.getDownloadedModels();   // → ["en", "es", ...]
await NitroTranslate.deleteModel("es");

NitroTranslate.isAvailable(); // boolean

Models

Translation runs on-device, but each language pairs against a downloadable model (~30 MB per language). The first translate() call for a language downloads its model (needs network and may take a few seconds); subsequent calls are fully offline. Pre-download with downloadModel() and gate large downloads behind Wi-Fi via the requireWifi flag.

Platform status

| Platform | Min | Status | | -------- | --- | ------ | | Android | API 26+ | ✅ Verified on-device (Pixel 9, API 36): en→es in ~2.5 s (incl. first-run model download) | | iOS | 15.5+ | ⚠️ Swift impl written; on-device build & run pending¹ | | tvOS/macOS | — | 🔜 Planned |

¹ ML Kit's iOS pods ship no arm64 Simulator slice; validate on a physical device.

Part of nitro-mlkit

The full ML Kit suite on Nitro — see the other @nitro-mlkit/* packages.

License

MIT © Gonzalo Polo