Live video translation is coming to Microsoft Edge — what you can do with it

Microsoft Edge Browser
Microsoft Edge introduced "double click to close browser tabs" some time ago. It now seems Google Chrome may get this handy feature. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Microsoft is making another bid to get users to switch over to its Edge browser by adding a live video translation feature. With it, the browser will be able to dub and subtitle videos in real time from popular services like YouTube, LinkedIn, Coursera, and others.

The company announced the cool new feature for its Edge browser during its Microsoft Build 2024 conference. As with so many new Microsoft products, the new feature relies on AI to perform its task. Basically, the new AI-powered feature can translate spoken content into certain languages as it's being watched. 

The feature is still in its infancy, so not many languages are supported. Right now, it works with Spanish to English, English to German, English to Hindi, English to Italian, English to Russian, and English to Spanish. While the language pool is limited, it serves as a compelling proof of concept that Microsoft will likely expand with more languages in the future. In fact, the company has already said it plans to add more tongues as time goes on. 

Real-time translation in Microsoft Edge.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

In addition to the popular video services mentioned previously, Microsoft will also support video translations on popular news sites like Reuters, CNBC, and Bloomberg. According to Microsoft, the list of supported websites will grow down the line.

Another potentially useful aspect of this new AI feature could be allowing those who are hard of hearing to get captions for videos that don't have them natively. Many video players offer automatic captioning, but for those who don't, this could be a game-changing feature that could convince some people to switch to Edge. Of course, it probably won't be long before Chrome and other browsers roll out similar features.

This feature is just the tip of the AI iceberg for Microsoft at build this year. New AI features are coming to all kinds of Windows PCs in the year ahead, including new Snapdragon X-toting models from Lenovo, Asus, Acer, and more.

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Dave LeClair
Senior News Editor

Dave LeClair is the Senior News Editor for Tom's Guide, keeping his finger on the pulse of all things technology. He loves taking the complicated happenings in the tech world and explaining why they matter. Whether Apple is announcing the next big thing in the mobile space or a small startup advancing generative AI, Dave will apply his experience to help you figure out what's happening and why it's relevant to your life.