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When having a voice conversation with another Skype user with translation enabled, Skype recognizes the speaker's voices, transcribes the spoken words and shows the transcribed text in the chat window. The text is then translated and shown in the chat, followed by a machine speaking the translated message. It works in near real time and after the call, the transcript of the call can be saved. The machine translation is not perfect, however the ability to have a near real time conversation in another language is impressive.

Watch the Youtube video by Microsoft showing how you can use Skype Translator in your regular Skype

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You can use all of the features of Skype Translate Preview to call and chat with another user running any Skype client (on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, etc).

Features

The machine translation is not perfect, however the ability to have a near real time conversation in another language is impressive.

Other information

There is also a Infographic describing how Skype Translator works: http://news.microsoft.com/download/presskits/skype/docs/SkypeTranslatorInfo.pdf

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