Amazon has launched a Live Translation feature for Alexa that will translate between two languages in real-time. The feature uses an Amazon Echo or Echo Show to translate conversations between English and French, German, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
To use the new feature, just say “Alexa, translate [language]” to an Echo. After a brief intro, the Echo will beep, indicating that the conversation may begin. Alexa will automatically detect which language is being spoken at what time and translate after each pause in speech. On an Echo Show, the conversation is also displayed on the screen in both languages. To stop translating, say “Alexa, stop.”
It doesn’t seem like this new Live Translation feature is available on non-Echo Alexa devices, such as Fire TVs or through the Alexa smartphone app. For those, you will need to ask for words or phrases to be translated individually by saying “Alexa, how do you say [phrase] in [language].” Individual word and phrase translation is supported in over 50 languages.
This new Live Translation feature is an expansion of the multilingual language capabilities that arrived for Alexa earlier this year. That capability allows US speakers to mix English with French, Hindi, and Spanish while speaking to Alexa and have the voice assistant understand the request.
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