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Hover Translate

Features

Features

Hover Translate is designed around short reading interruptions: pick a block, read the translation, and keep moving. Translation runs through Chrome’s built-in on-device Translator API.

Free on-device translation

  • No DeepL, Google, Azure, or other external translation account is required.
  • No API key is stored.
  • No character quota is tracked by the extension.
  • Chrome may download language packs on first use.

Two translation modes

Hover mode

In Hover mode, moving the cursor over a paragraph triggers a translation automatically after a short delay.

  • Hover any supported block element: paragraph, list item, heading, table cell, and similar text blocks.
  • After a 300 ms debounce, the extension checks that the cursor is actually over text.
  • The translation appears in a floating tooltip anchored to the block.
  • Leaving the block hides the tooltip.
Popup with Hover mode selected

Selection mode

Selection mode translates only highlighted text.

  • Shortcut: press Alt+Shift+T while text is selected.
  • Auto: translate automatically after mouse release.

Clearing the selection dismisses the tooltip.

Popup with Selection mode and Shortcut trigger selected

Automatic language direction

Hover Translate decides the translation direction from the text itself.

  • Text containing Japanese characters is translated Japanese → English.
  • Other text is translated English → Japanese.
  • You do not need to choose the source language manually.

Block-level detection

In Hover mode the extension looks for the nearest paragraph-like ancestor of the element under the cursor.

  • Native targets include p, li, h1 to h6, td, th, blockquote, figcaption, dd, and dt.
  • Documentation sites that do not use native <p> elements are also supported, including Mintlify ([data-as="p"]), Twitter/X tweet text, and Notion public pages.
  • If no known selector matches, the extension falls back to the nearest block-level ancestor with a reasonable amount of text.

In-page tooltip

Translations appear in a floating tooltip positioned close to the source text.

  • Hover mode anchors the tooltip to the hovered block.
  • Selection mode anchors the tooltip to the selection rectangle.
  • The tooltip flips vertically near the viewport edge.
  • A copy button copies the current translation to the clipboard.
  • Error tooltips use a red left border and show the mapped error message.

Translator session cache

The content script keeps a Translator API session per language direction while the page is loaded. Repeated translations reuse the same English → Japanese or Japanese → English session until the page unloads.

Keyboard shortcut

The default shortcut is Alt+Shift+T, dedicated to Selection mode.

  • In Selection + Shortcut mode, the shortcut translates the current selection on demand.
  • In Hover or Selection + Auto mode, the shortcut does nothing.
  • Change the key combination from the Change link in the popup.

Max character guardrail

Very large blocks are stopped before translation starts.

  • The default limit is 1500 characters.
  • You can change the limit from 500 to 5000 characters in Settings.
  • When a block or selection exceeds the current limit, the content script shows Text too long.