Skype's Real-Time Translator Now Available In Mobile, Landlines

by Carmen Reese
in Science
— Dec 15, 2016

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The company announced that Skype Translator, previously only available for calls made between one Skype client and another, will now include all calls to mobile phones and landlines.

Skype's voice translator application, which was first introduced in 2014, used to work on Skype to Skype calling only. With the Skype Preview software downloaded and updated, all that's needed to make the global and landline calls is either sufficient Skype credit or a full-on subscription to the service. To date, nine spoken languages are supported: English, Spanish, French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Arabic and Russian. The callers will have to select the contact from their list and tap on the icon for Skype Translator in order to bring up the translating options. The results ranged from "slightly garbled" to "leaving out multiple sentences at a stretch", and didn't seem trustworthy for a basic business transaction or other routine calls.

The new update will allow users to communicate seamlessly, even if they are speaking different languages.

As stated above, the app is in alpha at the moment and is different from the Skype Insiders app which Microsoft is a beta version of Skype (Think of it this way: Skype Mingo is to the Insider Fast ring as Skype Insider is to Release preview).

The new service is now in live preview, and you can try it using the Microsoft Translator app for iOS, Android, Amazon and Windows Phone, or by visiting this site. To use it, make sure you have the latest version of Skype Preview installed and either have Skype Credit to use or an active subscription. That said, this also means that it's bout to make a few mistakes along the way.

Before this, Skype's verbal translator was available only for calls made to other Skype accounts.

At this stage, still in preview, by definition there will doubtless be some kinks to iron out, but even if a translation is a bit ropey in places, with any luck you'll still be able to get the gist of what is being said.

The Verge says that the new feature in "Skype Translator" application now supports nine spoken languages.

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