Not wanting to fall behind the competition, Google Chrome continuously adds new features to maintain its position as the world’s most popular web browser. A part of Chrome’s appeal can be attributed to the accessibility features offered, such asLive Captionand page navigation with a text cursor. Now, Google is doing us one better and testing real-time machine translation of Live Captions in Chrome for desktop, a featurePixel users have enjoyed.
Presently, the accessibility options on Chrome 112 are rather limited. In Chrome Canary (v114), Google’s work-in-progress Live Translate feature supplements Live Captions. Chrome feature researcherLeopeva64-2 on Redditalso reports Google is changing the UI for managing downloaded language packs for the caption engine.
Live translation to Spanish for captions
Chrome Canary now allows users to test real-time translation of Live Captions. you may switch on the Live Translate toggle located underneath the Live Translate setting. The browser offers Live Captions in just a handful of languages — English, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, and Italian. However, you can translate them into a bunch of other languages. When video playback begins, the captions will appear in the language selected for translation, overriding the Live Caption language preference. This change effectively brings Live Caption support to all languages, although there is plenty of room for miscommunication because of translation.
The combo box menu to select translation language offers many choices
In this version of Chrome Canary, visual tweaks include new check boxes for adding language packs as well as a trash can icon to easily delete them.
Users can delete installed language packs easily
Last, Chrome’s global media controls are also being updated in Canary v114. The popup will now include a drop-down for Live Caption language selection, and a toggle for your pre-selected Live Translate language.
Global media controls with a Live Caption toggle switch
Together, these new features can make Chrome on desktop more accessible, allowing people with disabilities and language barriers to access more content on the internet without feeling left out. However, they are still being tested in Chrome Canary, and it could be a few months before we see them roll out widely in the stable channel.
