Google Meet’s real-time speech translation is now rolling out to mobile devices

If you regularly communicate with global teams or international clients, Google Meet just became a much more powerful tool to have in your pocket. Following a successful rollout for the web version earlier this year, Google has officially announced that near-real-time speech translation is now making its way to the Google Meet apps for Android and iOS.

Breaking down language barriers on the go is a huge win for productivity, especially for teams heavily invested in the Google Workspace ecosystem. Here is what you need to know about the new mobile update.

How it works on mobile devices

When enabled during a call, the feature translates spoken audio into your preferred language in near-real-time. It currently supports bidirectional translation between English and five other languages: Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Italian.

While it’s incredibly powerful, there are a couple of limitations to keep in mind for your early meetings:

• One pair at a time: You can only have one language pair active during a single meeting (e.g., English to Spanish). You can’t currently have one participant translating to Spanish while another translates to French.
• Room hardware constraints: If you are dialing into a meeting from a dedicated conference room setup, you will be able to hear the translated audio from other participants, but your own speech will not be translated for the rest of the room.

Google also noted that this is just the beginning, with ongoing UI improvements and refinements to translation accuracy expected to roll out over time.

Who gets it and when

Like most advanced AI features these days, speech translation in Google Meet is reserved for paid tiers. It is available for Workspace users on Business Standard/Plus, Enterprise Standard/Plus, and Frontline Plus. However, in great news for individual power users, it is also available for personal accounts subscribed to Google AI Pro and Ultra.

The rollout is already underway for Rapid Release domains (starting April 8th), with Scheduled Release domains following closely behind on April 23rd. If you have a compatible account, keep an eye on your Meet app over the next couple of weeks!