YouTube launches auto-dubbing of videos in dozens of languages for millions of channels
By ForGeeks
YouTube has announced the major launch of multilingual dubbing, a feature that allows creators to add tracks in dozens of languages to their videos — either manually or through automatic translation and synthetic voices. The feature will become available to millions of channels in the coming weeks.
From experiment to global tool
So far, the feature has been limited to a pilot program. Among the early participants were vloggers MrBeast and Marc Robert, whose videos received 30 or more takes each. According to YouTube, channels that have enabled the feature have gotten over 25% of their viewing time from non-primary languages, and Jamie Oliver’s channel has tripled its audience reach.
Chef and blogger Nick DiGiovanni likened choosing languages to picking ingredients for a dish: Spanish was «a must» but he also added an Italian twang because of his personal roots.
How auto-dubbing works
- Manual dubbing — upload your own tracks or work with voice actors;
- auto-dubbing — automatic translation and generation of voice tracks.
Automatic dubbing is enabled by default, but authors can disable it or set up pre-moderation of tracks.
Translations from English to Japanese, Hindi, Spanish, and Korean are supported now, with more to come. However, YouTube warns that auto-dubbing may not accurately represent intonation, idioms, and proper names, so human voices are better for «personalized» channels.
An auto-dubble may not accurately represent intonation, idioms, and proper names, so human voices are better for «personalized» channels.
Impact on monetization and promotion
YouTube ensures that dubbing does not affect rankings: new soundtracks are counted as separate versions of content for their respective audiences. This gives creators an equal chance of being recommended.
YouTube guarantees that dubbing will not affect rankings: new audio tracks are counted as separate versions of content for the appropriate audience.
Global reach also increases monetization opportunities: while ad costs vary by region, the total revenue increases.
YouTube is also testing multilingual previews with localized captions so that viewers can see videos in their native language before they open them.
What this means for viewers
For users, the process is as simple as possible: the video will automatically start in the preferred language, and the original track will remain available in the settings. Thus, videos will be perceived as tailored to the viewer, regardless of country.
