DeepL has rolled out its first voice translation solution, DeepL Voice. There are two products that were unveiled, “Voice for Meetings” and “Voice for Conversations.” DeepL Voice allows virtual meetings to be held across several languages and includes real-time translation for in-person conversations.
DeepL Voice supports English, German, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Dutch, French, Turkish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Italian, with translated captions available in all 33 DeepL Translator-supported languages. Additional languages will be added over time.
The company said DeepL Voice for Meetings eliminates language barriers from virtual meetings. “It enables every meeting participant to speak in their preferred language, while other participants receive translated captions in real-time so they can engage and communicate in their native language thus increasing engagement through clearer communication and allowing people to communicate where it was previously not possible,” the company said, adding that DeepL Voice for Conversations is used on mobile devices “to enable one-on-one, in-person conversations across languages thanks to translated captions.”
DeepL said Voice for Conversations provides two viewing modes aimed at allowing each user to follow translations on one device.
Jarek Kutylowski, chief executive officer and founder of DeepL, said bringing the quality and security that DeepL is known for “to real-time speech translation was the next frontier for us as a business and we’re excited to finally unveil our first products.” The CEO said that by building on “the expertise and models we’ve developed since our launch in 2017, we’ve been working closely with customers as part of a beta program to ensure that we’re delivering a solution that solves real-life challenges businesses face.”
For businesses, solving real-life challenges in communications saves time and money.
Kutylowski said when translating speech in real time, “you’re dealing with incomplete input, pronunciation issues, latency and more, all of which can lead to inaccurate translations and poor user experience. These are the same challenges that are oftentimes faced in human conversation that can lead to misunderstandings, so we built a solution that would take these into account from the offset and enable businesses to break down language barriers by enabling them to communicate in multiple languages as required.”
DeepL said the rollout of Voice expands its suite of language and communication tools available via its Language AI platform, “which is trusted by 100,000 businesses and governments worldwide for its accuracy and security,” the company said.
The company said the launch of DeepL Voice “was the pinnacle of DeepL’s first flagship conference, DeepL Dialogues, hosted in Berlin on Nov. 13.” The company said audience members saw a live demo and heard from beta customers. Christine Aubry, internationalization coordinator at Brioche Pasquier, is a beta customer of DeepL Voice who attended DeepL Dialogues. She said before DeepL Voice, “Our main challenge was maintaining the inclusion of our international sites in company projects. The experience was great, DeepL Voice for Meetings really brought our teams together — bridging the gap between our sites and opening the door to collaboration and teamwork.”
Aubry said she’s tested other tools, “which generally only support one language in the meeting, but there is nothing like this; DeepL Voice is by far the most complete tool I have used.”