How does microsoft skype translator work
That covers a lot of the world’s population however omits very popular global languages most notably Hindi (600+ million people) but also Arabic and Bengali (around 270 million each).Īlso missing are two languages needed in Western society. Skype translation supports eleven languages. However, the Translation and subtitling features might outweigh the security concerns. Skype messaging is NOT secure and is NOT recommended. The company was sending voice calls and translations to outside companies for analysis without notifying customers! Only after news of this practice leaked did Microsoft add this Skype Translator privacy option.Įven if you turn that option OFF (and you should), there’s a risk that the contents of your subtitled call or messages could be read by others. Very reluctantly, Microsoft added a ‘privacy’ option. Under Skype Settings | Translation settings you can choose the ‘incoming’ language for voice and text translations or subtitles. That means you don’t need to know the language of the person or people you’re talking to. Microsoft’s Translation service detects the language automatically, even if the person switches languages between messages in the same chat. You can see where the translation started in the chat history.Ĭlick on ‘Show original’ to see what was typed. The receiver will see a request to accept or decline (in their own language naturally). It’s not clear why text chats need approval from the other party while subtitling/translating a voice conversation does not. Under Translate Conversation click Send Translation request. Then scroll down the list of profile options to Translate Conversation. Right-click on the person and choose ‘View Profile’. Start by going to your contacts list or recent chats list in Skype. Translation of Skype messaging takes a little more setup. If the language spoken is the same as your incoming language setting, Skype just does the first step (speech to text) without translation. Translating that text into another language, if necessary.
Microsoft Skype translation works in two steps: There’s a good reason for this, making the text is necessary for any translation. Simple subtitling of a language you know is a big part of this service. It’s not just for translating between languages. The entire text history of the call appears under the ‘Subtitle history’ link. However, like all similar services, it’s not perfect and will produce some strange text occasionally. The ‘voice to text’ conversion is pretty good and so is the translation between languages. When someone speaks on the call, their words will appear as subtitles. Skype will prompt you to select your language (for display of subtitles or voice translation) if it can’t work it out from your computer settings. Start a voice or video call as usual, then choose ‘Turn subtitles on’ from the menu. Personally, we prefer to hear the original voice and read subtitles, the choice is yours.
It will convert the spoken word into text or voice including translation if necessary. As a bonus, the same subtitles service will translate when talking to someone who speaks another language. Skype subtitles are great if you’d prefer a text record of your call or you’re hard of hearing and like a text extra.