Skype Translator: app that translates speech in real time released

Launched in English and Spanish.

By Raif Karerat

WASHINGTON, DC: Microsoft-owned Skype software has publicly released Skype Translator, which can decipher languages in real-time. The preview has launched with two languages, English and Spanish, along with over 40 instant messaging languages.

Skype Translator works by translating the voice input from one speaker into translated audio or video for the other. An English speaker will hear an English translation from a Spanish speaker, and vice versa. It was launched as a private beta last month but is now available to anyone.

Microsoft has marketed Skype Translator as a tool for academia, and it is already popular in the classroom. Teachers and their classrooms have already been participating in video conferences that have connected them to other schools across the globe.

Now that Skype Translator is available for the public, it is expected a much wider audience will be able to test it in even more real-world situations– including, assumedly– business. Microsoft has already demonstrated the capability of Skype Translator to work with German, and other languages are certainly on the horizon.

“Our long-term goal for speech translation is to translate as many languages as possible on as many platforms as possible and deliver the best Skype Translator experience on each platform for our more than 300 million connected users,” said Skype vice president Gurdeep Pali.

“Skype Translator relies on machine learning, which means that the more the technology is used, the smarter it gets,” he further explained. “We are starting with English and Spanish and, as more people use the Skype Translator preview with these languages, the quality will continually improve.”