BoardSnap and language support — what to know.
Short answer
BoardSnap can read and summarize whiteboards written in most major languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, and others. The underlying AI models (Anthropic Claude and OpenAI's vision models) have broad multilingual capability. The BoardSnap app interface is currently in English.
## How language support works
BoardSnap's language capability comes from two layers:
Apple VisionKit handles on-device text detection. VisionKit supports a broad set of languages for text recognition, including Latin-script languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese), as well as Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, and Korean. Detection quality varies by language — Latin-script languages tend to perform best.
BoardSnap AI (Anthropic Claude / OpenAI vision models) reads the detected content and generates the summary and action items. These models support dozens of languages and will typically respond in the same language the board is written in.
## What to expect in practice
If your whiteboard is written in French, BoardSnap will usually produce a French summary. If it's in Spanish, the action items will be in Spanish. The model follows the source language by default.
Mixed-language boards — common in multinational teams — work reasonably well. The AI reads context across languages and generally produces a coherent summary even when the board mixes, say, English technical terms with Spanish prose.
## App interface language
The BoardSnap app UI is currently English-only. Buttons, labels, and settings are in English regardless of your iPhone's language setting. Localized app interfaces are not yet available.
## Right-to-left scripts
Arabic, Hebrew, and other right-to-left scripts are supported by the underlying AI models with varying accuracy. VisionKit's RTL text detection is functional but may be less reliable than Latin-script detection on a physical whiteboard.
## When to test
If your primary workflow is in a non-English language, try the free tier with a few boards before committing to Pro. The ten-second turnaround makes it easy to validate quality for your specific language and handwriting style.
Frequently asked
Will BoardSnap ever have a localized app interface?
Localized interfaces are on the roadmap. English-only is the current state. Contact [email protected] if your language is a priority.
Can I ask BoardSnap to summarize in a different language than the board was written in?
Yes. In the AI chat, you can ask for a translation or a summary in a different language. The model handles this on request.
See it work in ten seconds.
BoardSnap is free on the App Store. Snap a board — get a summary and action plan.