Bridge

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https://github.com/Sashank-Singh/Bridge_YC_Hackathon

Inspiration

Conversations should not be limited by language barriers. We wanted to explore how the iPhone Duo's unique foldable design could make translation feel more natural during face-to-face conversations.

Instead of passing a phone back and forth or constantly looking down at a translation app, we imagined placing the iPhone Duo between two people in an L-shaped position. Each person gets their own screen, turning the device into a shared translation experience.

That's how Bridge was born — a way to bridge the gap between languages.

What it does

Bridge is a face-to-face live translation app designed specifically around the iPhone Duo's foldable form factor.

Two people place the iPhone Duo between them in an L-shaped position, with each person facing their own display.

One person simply speaks naturally. Bridge listens without interrupting them, detects when they have finished speaking, translates what they said, and displays the translation on the other person's screen.

The other person can then respond in their own language, creating a natural back-and-forth conversation without having to pass the phone around or manually trigger every translation.

How we built it

We built Bridge as a native iOS application using Swift and UIKit.

A major part of the project was designing the experience specifically for the iPhone Duo rather than treating the foldable display like a traditional phone screen.

We used the Duo's multi-display capabilities to create separate interfaces for each participant. The app coordinates speech recognition, translation, conversation state, and the two displays so that each person sees the information relevant to them.

We also focused heavily on making the interface simple. During a conversation, users shouldn't have to navigate menus or constantly interact with the device — the technology should stay out of the way.

Challenges we ran into

One of our biggest challenges was learning how to design and develop for a completely new foldable form factor.

Traditional iPhone apps are designed around one person looking at one screen. Bridge needed to support two people looking at different sides of the same device while still sharing one conversation.

We also had to think carefully about when translation should happen. Translating while someone is still speaking can interrupt the flow of a conversation, so we designed Bridge around detecting when a speaker has finished before presenting the translation.

Another challenge was coordinating the UI and application state across the Duo's different displays and orientations while keeping the experience intuitive.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud that Bridge isn't simply an existing translation interface stretched onto a foldable screen.

The experience is built around the hardware.

By using the iPhone Duo's hinge and multiple displays, we created an interaction where the physical device itself becomes part of the conversation. You can place it between two people and give each person their own side of the experience.

We're also proud of how simple the final interaction is: place the phone down, choose your languages, and start talking.

What we learned

We learned that designing for a new form factor requires thinking beyond screen size.

The hinge, physical orientation, viewing angle, and position of the device can all become part of the user experience.

We also learned a lot about building native iOS interfaces with Swift and UIKit, managing multiple views, working with speech and translation, and designing an interface around a real-world human interaction rather than a traditional phone workflow.

Most importantly, we learned that good technology doesn't always need more interaction. Sometimes the best interface is one that gets out of the way and lets people talk.

What's next for Bridge

We want to make Bridge feel even closer to having a real interpreter sitting between two people.

Future versions could support more languages, improved speaker detection, conversation history, offline translation, accessibility features, and smarter contextual translations that better understand the conversation.

We also want to continue exploring the iPhone Duo's different orientations and build experiences that would not be possible on a traditional single-screen phone.

Our goal is simple: make communicating with someone who speaks another language feel effortless.

Built With

• bitrig
• chatgpt
• codex
• revenuecat
• sentry
• supabase
• swiftui