Google Meet Is Breaking Down Language Barriers With Real-Time Translation

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

The day is here, Google is kicking off its I/O event today. While this event is meant for developers, the company tends to make a fair number of announcements that also relate to the public. For instance, Google is now rolling out a new feature for Meet that will come first to consumers.

If you use Google Meet to talk with friends or loved ones over video, you’ll be able to take advantage of a new feature starting today. This new feature is speech translation, and it’s capable of providing low-latency, near real-time translation of spoken words. So if you speak English and you want to talk with someone who speaks Spanish, speech translation will convert those words into your preferred language.

Near real-time translation is impressive, but what’s also impressive about this feature is that it’s capable of retaining the speaker’s voice, tone, and expression. As a result, the conversation still comes off as natural. Initially, this feature will only support English and Spanish, but Google plans to add more languages in the next few weeks.

Unfortunately, speech translation won’t be available to everyone right away. The tech giant is rolling it out in beta to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers first. As for Workspace customers, Google says early testing will begin sometime this year. The feature is also coming to Google Beam, previously known as Project Starline.

Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at [email protected]. You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it’s your choice.