Learn about Sweetly and why I made it.

“In the world of translation systems there is no shortage of services that allow for a very pleasant experience in translation, but in the realm of VOIP and video calling we have always been very limited. For the longest time there was really only one service that allowed for this to be done efficiently. This service was bundled into a calling platform that had been around for a very long time. As with everything in life and technology everything must progress and grow. That service was retired in May 2025 and as a community we lost our ability to have an affordable solution to this need. For me personally it took a huge toll on some very important friendships and connections I had been blessed with making in the time leading up to its retirement.

When that happened I set out to fill the gap left behind. That brought on my first of several iterations of my idea. The first version was able to do speech to speech translation in only one direction, but the TTS and STT engines were all running locally and the translation API was using a free tier API. Doing it this way made the app completely free to use but had its own set of challenges and drawbacks. In order for this to be used efficiently during a video call both people had to have the app installed and running and making it all work smoothly with low latency on computers without GPU support is basically not possible if the users want STT that is accurate for any language and voice types and have TTS that resembles humanlike voices plus be free to use APIs. That software was a good bandage to hold things together long enough for me to make some advancements in the processes used for this.

Another 4 months, a lot of sleepless nights, research, trying various alternatives, reaching dead ends and starting over, refining the way I was trying all this and then finally it happened. All the stars aligned in my universe and it just worked. Not only did it work, it worked far beyond any expectation I had. I had finally done it. I got basically ZERO latency, perfect translation, speech synthesis that sounded like natural human speech and also copied the tone and mood of what was being said. I had gotten these services to run in both directions all from one installation and I did all this in a way that can be then used with any platform also which makes it very versatile and its use is easy.

Imagine finding the first friendship you have ever found that you could be open in and not feel judged. One that felt like it had always been there since childhood and one that felt like a copy of yourself with the only difference being that of location on this planet. Then one day having both of you losing the ability to speak. Almost like 2 people standing on either side of a soundproof glass window that doesn’t open. This is what drove me to make Sweetly. The fact that I know I am not the only person in the world who has faced this challenge and if I am able to make even the slightest positive impact on someone’s life who is facing communication challenges like my own then I will do so. Sweetly currently has the ability to make your multilingual communication feel almost like a natural flowing conversation and I am dedicated to only moving forward with this software to make the experience always better than the last. Communication should not be restricted, difficult or near impossible between all cultures and backgrounds. So far this is all only available on Windows but plans to have a version for macOS will soon be on the table to expand our community further. I want Sweetly to be available for everyone to use, experience and enjoy.

What is Sweetly?

Sweetly is a speech to speech translation app for windows (and MacOs in the future) that works beautifully with any calling platform both video and VOIP or any platform that uses a mic input and has audio output such as broadcasting software, etc. Sweetly does bi directional translation from one side of the call for both languages. Users can choose between 153 languages currently and will benefit from its nearly zero latency (depending on the users internet connection basically). It features natural humanlike speech output in all languages and Sweetly even translates idioms into something the other user will properly understand.

At its core Sweetly is your personal interpreter, but it truly is so much more especially when it comes to correctly being able to communicate across multiple languages and have it feel almost natural. The beauty of it all is that it just works and it works really well. As with any speech based app there is no perfection but I know first hand how difficult these types of apps can be when a person has a voice that can be difficult for microphones to pick up. I am a throat cancer survivor who has been determined to find a system that does this well and I truly feel that I have made something that can relieve a lot of stress and headache in the world of communication and if this app can make at least one other person have that weight lifted from their shoulders then I will be happy because I know what this app has done for me personally.”

Joey Sutherland

Founder, developer, everything-er