YouTube's auto-dubbing now supports 27 languages, offers more viewer control
What's the story
YouTube has announced a major upgrade to its auto-dubbing feature, making it more accessible for viewers to watch content from global creators. The update comes as part of YouTube's effort to make "global stories feel local," while also providing users and creators with more control over their viewing experience. The enhanced auto-dubbing now supports 27 languages, a significant increase from before.
User engagement
Auto-dubbing now available to all users
YouTube's auto-dubbing feature, which automatically translates and voices videos into different languages, is now available to all users. The platform has seen a rapid increase in the use of this feature, with over six million viewers watching at least 10 minutes of auto-dubbed content every day in December. This shows a growing demand for multilingual content on the platform.
Feature upgrade
Expressive Speech for better audio quality
The latest update also focuses on improving the quality of dubbed audio. To make this happen, YouTube has introduced a new feature called Expressive Speech for all channels in eight key languages: English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The feature aims to capture a creator's original tone and emotion better than before without making dubbed voices sound flat or robotic.
User control
Preferred language setting for viewers
YouTube is also giving viewers more control over how they consume dubbed content. The platform has introduced a new Preferred Language setting, letting users choose between watching videos in their original language or a dubbed version. This feature comes in addition to YouTube's existing watch history-based system that determines the default language version to play.
Testing phase
Lip-sync pilot in testing phase
To enhance realism further, YouTube is testing a lip-sync pilot that subtly matches a speaker's lip movements to the translated audio. The feature is still in the testing phase but indicates where auto-dubbing could be headed next. It aims to make dubbed videos feel more seamless and reduce the visual disconnect often associated with translated content.
Creator control
Automatic smart filtering introduced
YouTube has also introduced automatic smart filtering, a feature that detects videos that shouldn't be dubbed. This includes music-only uploads or silent vlogs, helping keep content authentic. The platform has also assured creators that auto-dubbed videos won't affect their discovery or ranking on the platform. In fact, it could even help them reach new audiences in other languages.