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Get started with RainbowSay on your Mac

RainbowSay turns the videos, shows and podcasts you already watch into language lessons — for yourself, or for the class you teach. This page takes you from download to your first translated sentence — it takes about two minutes.

What you need

A Mac with Apple Silicon running macOS 14.2 or later (macOS 15 or later is recommended: its permission dialog says clearly that the app asks for audio only).
A Google account to sign in with. No credit card: you start with free credit, and the AI is included — there are no API keys to create or paste.
Something to watch or listen to in the language you are learning. Any app works: a browser, a video player, a podcast app, a call.

Install and open the app

Download RainbowSay for macOS and move it to your Applications folder.
Open it. RainbowSay is a menu-bar app: it has no Dock icon, just an icon in the menu bar and a floating overlay — the small translucent card where everything happens.
If you ever lose the overlay, click the menu-bar icon and choose Show Overlay.

The overlay first shows a single step: Sign in with Google.

Press Sign in with Google. Your browser opens on Google’s sign-in page.
Choose your account. The app receives your name and email address — nothing else from your Google account.
Return to the app. While it waits the overlay says “Waiting for your browser…”; Cancel stops the attempt if you changed your mind.

Your plan and usage belong to your account, not to one computer, so you can sign in on another Mac later and carry on.

Give the app permission to hear your Mac

A Listening session needs two macOS permissions. System Audio Recording Only lets RainbowSay hear what your Mac is playing — audio only; the app never records, or asks to record, your screen. Accessibility (called Device Control and Data Access on macOS 27 and later) lets it pause your player at the end of a sentence and makes the spacebar work as a shortcut from any app.

Press Start Listening. While a permission is missing the overlay asks for it instead of starting: under “System Audio Recording is off”, press Allow….
Allow it in the macOS dialog. If macOS opens System Settings instead, turn RainbowSay on under Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording → System Audio Recording Only.
The overlay then asks for Accessibility (step 2 of 2). macOS often doesn’t list the app by itself: open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility (Device Control and Data Access on macOS 27 and later), press +, choose RainbowSay in your Applications folder and switch it on.

The app re-checks every few seconds, so you don’t need to restart anything: once both are granted, the next press of Start Listening starts the session. Permissions explained covers all three permissions.

Run your first Listening session

At the top of the overlay, make sure Listening is selected (the other two are Speaking and Subtitles).
Play a video or podcast in the language you are learning.
Press Start Listening. The status line reads “Listening…”, then “Hearing a sentence…” when someone speaks.
At the end of the sentence the player pauses by itself and a card appears: the original sentence, its translation, the vocabulary with readings, and a short grammar note. The translation is also spoken aloud.
Take your time. Hover a word to see what it means, press Original or Translation to hear either again, or open the chat to ask a question about the sentence.
Press Continue — or the Space bar — and the video plays on to the next sentence.

By default the spoken language is detected automatically and translations are in English. To change either for this session, press the options button next to Start Listening and pick an Input language and Output language; to change your defaults, open Settings then Session then Listening then Languages. More in Languages.

Where to go next

Listening — how a session flows, and everything the card can do.
Speaking — the same card for your own voice, through the microphone.
Subtitles — live translated captions over any video or call, without pausing — or over your own voice, for an audience.
Ways to use it: for students, for teachers, for creators.
Your study history — every sentence is saved on your Mac for review.