Google has started rolling out the impressive live translated captions feature of Google Meet.
We reported back in September that Google had commenced beta testing of a feature that enabled live translation on top of Google Meet’s established real-time video call transcriptions. Now the feature is finally ready for prime time, according to a new Google Workspace Updates blog post.
“We’re now making live translated captions generally available for select Google Workspace editions,” says Google.
The new feature enables English meetings to be translated into French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish across Google Meet on web and mobile devices. It will remain available through the beta program for now, which is a further indication that it’s still something of a work in progress.
According to Google, “Translated captions help make Google Meet video calls more inclusive and collaborative by removing language proficiency barriers”. It says this can be particularly useful for companies with a globally distributed workforce when conducting all-hands meetings or training calls, as well as for educators dealing with students from diverse backgrounds.
Google Meet meeting participants will be able to make use of the translation feature if the host is in beta or using an eligible Google Workspace edition. Those editions include Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Google Workspace for Education Plus customers.
If you meet the criteria, you can access Google Meet’s live translation feature by heading to Settings > Captions > Translated captions on the web, or Settings > Captions > Live Captions > Translation Language on mobile.
Live translations started being made available on January 12, but Google claims that it can take up to 15 days for the feature to become visible.
