You no longer have to get lost in translation when using Skype to chat with people who speak a different language from yours - even when they're using old-fashioned devices like a landline. Microsoft's Skype has just made its real-time verbal translation function available for calls made to landlines and mobile phones.
The verbal translation service, which is powered by artificial intelligence, is already available on Windows 10's Skype Preview app, Venture Beat reports. Microsoft has said users of Windows Insider or those who signed up for early access of the latest Windows operating system can already use the Skype verbal translator for landline and mobile phone calls.
Before this, Skype's verbal translator was available only for calls made to other Skype accounts. The service first translated English to Spanish and back to covering nine languages including Mandarin, Arabic, Russian and Italian. Skype's translator for text-based messaging currently supports more than 50 languages.
The Skype verbal translator works through AI, constantly training and improving its artificial system by listening to more conversations. To use it, you need to be part of the Windows Insider program, which is free to join and tops up your Skype Preview account with enough credits.
When you use Skype translator, the person you are calling will hear a voice prompt informing him or her that the call will be recorded and translated, according to Mashable.
Although the service is not perfect and its translations sometimes inaccurate, experts laud the potential of Skype's translator to break language barriers and improve cross-cultural communication.
The Christian Science Monitor quoted an expert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who wrote in 2015, when Skype's verbal translation service was launched, that the technology "could be transformative." Writing for the MIT Technology Review, John Pavlus compared using Skype's translator to being in a UN session with real-time translations of speeches.
