The newest version of Skype can perform real-time translations of spoken conversations in six languages, the company reports. People using Microsoft's video chat and messaging service have their choice of German, English, Spanish, French, Italian and Mandarin Chinese. Those communicating in written format have their choice of 50 languages for instantaneous translation.
Input and output languages have to be set before the conversation starts. Participants then have the choice of getting the translation read out by the machine or scrolled as a subtitle at the bottom of the screen.
The new feature came out for the Windows version of Skype first, with other versions to be released bit by bit in the coming weeks.