A private Progressive Immersion alternative for Chrome and Safari
Progressive Immersion and Phrase Flip start from the same premise: instead of opening a separate language app, you learn while reading the web pages you already visit every day. Both are free and require no account, but they differ in what they translate, where your page text goes, and which browsers they support.
The short version
| Phrase Flip | Progressive Immersion | |
|---|---|---|
| What gets translated | Whole sentences | Individual frequent words |
| Where translation runs | On your device | Sent to Google Translate |
| Price | Free | Free (open source) |
| Account required | No | No |
| Browsers | Chrome, Safari on Mac, iPhone and iPad | Chrome |
| Original text reveal | Hover or tap | Click or hover |
Sentences in context vs frequent words
Progressive Immersion scans the page for common words and swaps them into your target language one by one. That helps you recognise isolated vocabulary, but the sentence structure around each word stays English.
Phrase Flip translates complete sentences. Reading a full sentence forces your brain to parse word order, verb conjugations, prepositions and natural phrasing—the parts of a language that word lists leave out. Because the sentences before and after are still in English, you can follow the article without losing the thread. You can adjust how many sentences flip with the intensity slider, and hover or tap any sentence to see the original English.
On-device privacy vs cloud translation
Progressive Immersion doesn't track you or require a login, and it lets you block specific websites. However, it translates by sending the words from your page to Google Translate.
Phrase Flip translates on your device and does not send page text away for translation. Whether you're reading work docs, newsletters or long-form articles, the text stays on your machine.
Safari on Mac, iPhone and iPad
Progressive Immersion is a Chrome extension for desktop browsing.
Phrase Flip runs on Chrome 138 or newer and as a native Safari extension on Mac, iPhone and iPad—so your phone and tablet reading counts toward your language practice too.
Which one should you pick?
Pick Progressive Immersion if you want an open-source Chrome extension that swaps individual words using Google Translate's broad language list.
Pick Phrase Flip if you want to read whole sentences rather than single words, want translation to stay on your device, or read in Safari on a Mac, iPhone or iPad.
You can try the interactive demo on the Phrase Flip homepage, get Phrase Flip on the App Store for Safari (Mac, iPhone and iPad), or add Phrase Flip to Chrome.