Google is rolling out live translated captions in Google Meet to choose Workspace users after five months of beta testing the feature.
The feature works by translating a language expressed by one client into captions in another language. That’s a handy feature for multinational organizations who hold meetings across various language groups, especially true now when online video meetings are a must-have for many.
The beta, launched in September, supported English meetings translated to Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German. This remains the same in the generally available release for select Google Workspace editions. Translated captions are viewable on Google Meet on the web and Meet mobile apps.
Google’s Meet live interpreted captions one-ups Microsoft Teams, which right now offers a real-time but English-only captioning and transcription service for Teams meetings on select Office 365 levels. Per OnMSFT, Microsoft in September extended live captions from English to 27 languages but these are not translated from one language to another.
If you’re hosting an all-hands meeting with globally distributed teams, you may be happy to hear that Google Meet’s previously announced ‘Live translated captions’ are now generally available. The company stated last year that they would be rolling out soon for select Workspace editions, and now here we are!
Google Meet has begun rolling out live translated inscriptions generally after testing the element last year. It works on the web or mobile but is still fairly restricted, interpreting for just English meetings to four languages: French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.
“Translated captions help make Google Meet video calls more inclusive and collaborative by removing language proficiency barriers,” Google wrote in a Workspace blog. “When meeting participants consume content in their preferred language, this helps equalize information sharing, learning, and collaboration and ensures your meetings are as effective as possible for everyone.”
Google first announced the feature at its I/O developer’s gathering last year, and Otter offers a comparative help for Google Meet and Zoom. Live translated captions are accessible for Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Google Workspace for Education Plus clients. It’s rolling out steadily starting yesterday, so it could require as long as 15 days before you see it.
However, try not to anticipate that it should work impeccably. All things considered, it isn’t difficult to interpret live text on the fly, which presumably clarifies the exhaustive testing time frame in the course of the most recent while. Google isn’t anticipating shutting its beta, by the same token. Assuming you’ve been a member, you’ll stay in this testing bunch for the following while.
The feature begins carrying out today, growing to all clients steadily throughout the following 15 days. Assuming you haven’t gotten it yet, ensure your application is fully up-to-date.