Skype Translator Will Be Able to Interpret Calls in Real Time

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella showed off Skype Translator on Tuesday, an upcoming feature aiming at real-time interpretation of voice calls within two years.

The development version of the software was demonstrated at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., where it interpreted between German and English in a conversation, Verge reports. There are plans to add several languages, including Chinese.

Windows 8 users will be able to use a beta version of Skype Translator by the end of the year, said Gurdeep Pall, Microsoft’s vice president of Skype and Lync.

Microsoft has been working on machine translation for more than a decade, but doing so with Skype only seemed like a possibility very recently, the company said on the Microsoft Research site.

Unlike Skype, the Skype Translator feature is not expected to be free.

[Verge]