Auto-forwarding turns Respeak from a one-person translation tool into a two-way voice channel between you and one other person. You pair once. After that, every voice message you record gets auto-translated into their language and delivered straight to their Telegram chat. They can reply, and their reply auto-translates back to you.
It's the closest thing to "we both speak the same language" without either of you actually learning a new one.
This guide covers the full setup, the rules, and the edge cases. Total reading time: ~5 minutes.
What you need before you start
- A Basic ($1.99/mo) or Pro ($5.99/mo) Respeak plan. Auto-forwarding isn't on the Free tier — it's the productivity layer that makes the paid plans worth paying for.
- The person you want to pair with needs to have Telegram on any device. They don't need a Respeak plan. They don't need to install anything new. They don't even need to know what Respeak is yet — the pairing flow walks them through it.
- Two minutes.
The four-step setup
Step 1 — Open Respeak in Telegram and run /forward setup
In your chat with @TryRespeakBot, type /forward setup. The bot replies with a unique pairing link that looks like t.me/TryRespeakBot?start=pair_abc123. The link is good for 72 hours.
Step 2 — Send the link to the person you want to pair with
Forward the link to them via WhatsApp, iMessage, email, or however you normally talk. They click it, and Telegram opens with a "Start" button on the Respeak bot.
Step 3 — They tap Accept
After they hit Start, the bot greets them: "[Your name] wants to send you translated voice messages. Accept?" They pick the language they speak (so the bot knows what to translate your voice into), then tap Accept.
Step 4 — Both sides get a confirmation
You see "[Their name] accepted! Voice messages you send will now auto-forward to them in [their language]." They see "Paired with [your name]. Their voice messages will arrive in [your language]." Forwarding is now live.
How it works once paired
You sending to them
Just record a voice message in your chat with Respeak as you normally would. Within ~3 seconds, the bot:
- Transcribes your voice (Whisper)
- Translates the transcript into their language
- Synthesizes natural-sounding voice in their language (TTS)
- Sends that translated voice to their chat with Respeak
- Replies to you with a confirmation: "✓ Forwarded to [name]" plus an ↩️ Undo button
The Undo button works for ~48 hours after sending — useful if you realize you sent the wrong message or want to retract.
Them replying to you
Their side is slightly different to keep things safe and explicit. For them to reply via the bot, they have to use Telegram's native Reply feature:
- They tap and hold your forwarded voice message in their chat with Respeak
- They tap Reply
- They record their voice as the reply
Respeak detects the reply context, translates their voice into your language, and delivers it to your chat. From your perspective, it's just a translated voice message landing in Respeak.
Why the explicit Reply? Without it, every voice message they send to Respeak would get auto-routed to you — including any voice messages they want to translate just for themselves. Reply-required keeps the routing unambiguous: fresh voice = solo translation; reply = forward back to the pair.
The rules and edge cases
Billing: you pay for the whole channel
The pair is on your plan. Both directions of the conversation count against your monthly quota — your messages going out, and their replies coming back. They don't pay anything for this pair (think of it like a Spotify family plan: one paying account, multiple people use it). If you're on Basic with 100 messages/month, that's 100 messages total across both directions combined.
One paired contact at a time
You can have one outgoing pair at any moment. If you want to pair with a different person, run /unforward first to remove the current pair, then /forward setup for the new one. Each new pair gets a fresh code — old links can't be reused.
Your paired contact can be paired with multiple senders independently — they could be receiving from you AND from someone else simultaneously. The Reply feature handles that correctly.
Pause without unpairing
Need to translate something privately without it auto-going to your contact? Use /forward pause. Voice messages you send during the pause translate normally for your eyes only. /forward resume turns forwarding back on.
What happens if your plan expires or hits the limit
- You hit your monthly limit: forwarding pauses for both directions until the new month or you upgrade. You and your contact both get notified.
- Your subscription expires: same — pair pauses until you renew.
- Your contact blocks the Respeak bot: the next forward attempt fails, you get notified ("Couldn't forward to X — they may have blocked the bot"), and you can
/unforwardto clean up.
What gets sent vs what doesn't
Your contact only sees the translated voice message — no source transcript, no translation text. It looks and feels like a regular voice message in their Telegram, just spoken in their language. If they want a text version, Telegram's built-in voice transcription (long-press → Transcribe) gives them one for free.
Privacy
Voice audio is processed in real time and not stored after the translation is delivered. The same privacy rules that apply to solo Respeak use apply to forwarded messages. See our Privacy Policy for the full version.
The commands, in one place
/forward setup— generate a pairing link to share/forward— show the current pair status/forward pause— temporarily stop forwarding/forward resume— turn forwarding back on/unforward— remove the pair (your contact gets notified)
Common questions, in shorter form
Can I forward to a group chat? Not yet — current pairs are 1-to-1. Group support is on the roadmap.
Can my contact reply with text instead of voice? Yes — they can long-press your voice message → Reply → type. Text replies route the same way as voice replies.
Can I have multiple paired contacts? Not in the same direction. You can be the outgoing-side of one pair, and the incoming-side of separate pairs (different senders forwarding to you), but you can only originate to one contact at a time.
Will my contact see "via Respeak" or anything weird? No — to them it looks like a normal voice message in their Telegram chat with the Respeak bot. They saw the bot accept the pairing once; after that it's invisible.
What if my contact accidentally declines, or I want to change pairs? Run /forward setup again to generate a fresh pairing link. The old one becomes invalid.