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Configuration and Use

Overview​

TAKTALK is an ATAK plugin that provides real-time, on-device speech-to-speech translation. It lets you speak in your own language and have your words translated and spoken back in another language — either to a single person in the same room (Solo Chat), or to a team chat room or broadcast group over the TAK network. Translation, transcription, and text-to-speech all run on the device itself; no audio or text is sent to the cloud.

This module covers configuring TAKTALK's settings, creating a voice clone, using Solo Chat mode for in-person conversations, setting up team chat rooms, and sending broadcast messages.

Prerequisites​

  • ATAK with the TAKTALK plugin installed.
  • Offline text-to-speech and translation models downloaded and pre-cached for any languages you plan to use — TAKTALK works entirely offline, so a language's model must already be on the device before you need it.
  • For team chat rooms and broadcast messaging, other participants must be reachable on the TAK network and have TAKTALK installed.

Steps​

Configure TAKTALK settings​

  1. Open the TAKTALK settings menu from within ATAK.
  2. Select your spoken language — the language you speak, which TAKTALK uses to transcribe and translate your voice.
  3. Remap the push-to-talk button if needed. The volume-up button can be set as an override for push-to-talk.
  4. Choose the data channel TAKTALK uses to send messages: the COT network or UDP.
  5. Turn TacChat logging on or off. When enabled, translated conversations are logged into ATAK's built-in chat (TacChat/GeoChat) so there's a record of what was said.
  6. TAKTALK's map overlay for broadcast messaging remains available even when the plugin's main UI is closed.
  7. Download and pre-cache the offline text-to-speech models for any languages you expect to need before you lose network access.

Create a voice clone​

  1. Record roughly 30 seconds of continuous speech to create a voice profile.
  2. Name and save the profile.
  3. Voice profiles can be shared between phones/devices. Each profile carries a "last updated" timestamp so you can tell which copy is current.
  4. If a recipient doesn't yet have a voice profile of their own, one is created automatically the first time it's needed — or you can directly request someone else's existing clone.
  5. Once a clone is available, playback uses that person's cloned voice instead of the default robotic text-to-speech.

Use Solo Chat mode​

  1. Solo Chat mode mirrors TAKTALK's display so a single phone can be passed back and forth between two people having an in-person conversation.
  2. Each person uses push-to-talk to speak in their own language; TAKTALK translates and speaks the response back in the other person's language.
  3. Solo Chat supports pairing two non-English languages directly (for example, Spanish to French), not just translating to and from English.
  4. High-resource languages — English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian — currently give the best translation quality and performance.

Create a team chat room​

  1. Create a room and give it a name (for example, "Team A").
  2. Add participants from the TAK network.
  3. Set each participant's spoken language individually so messages are translated correctly for everyone in the room.
  4. Messages sent to the room are translated and delivered as spoken audio in each participant's configured language.
  5. The original transcribed text is also available to view alongside the translation.
  6. Room membership can be viewed at any time.
  7. A room's local copy can be deleted from your device when you no longer need it.

Send a broadcast message​

  1. Press and hold the broadcast control, speak your message, and release to send.
  2. The message is translated and played back as spoken audio to the room or network.
  3. Longer messages take slightly longer to process and deliver than short ones.

Screenshots​

No screenshots have been captured yet for TAKTALK. Add reference images to assets/end-user/tak/taktalk/ as they become available.

Troubleshooting​

  • Translation or playback doesn't happen offline — Confirm the text-to-speech and translation models for that language were downloaded and pre-cached ahead of time. TAKTALK processes everything on-device, so a model that isn't already cached can't be fetched in the field.
  • Push-to-talk isn't triggering — Check the button remapping in TAKTALK settings, especially if the volume-up override was configured; it may need to be reassigned.
  • A teammate isn't hearing your cloned voice — Confirm your voice profile has finished sharing to their device and check the profile's "last updated" timestamp to make sure they have the current version.