YouTube has officially announced its multi-language audio feature following a two-year-long pilot, allowing millions of content creators to add dubbing to their videos in multiple languages.
Originally released as a pilot in 2023, it was previously accessible to a limited number of creators such as MrBeast, Mark Rober, and chef Jamie Oliver.
Previously, creators were required to work with third-party dubbing services until the company launched an AI-powered auto-dubbing tool, which uses Google’s Gemini technology to replicate a creator’s tone.
Following its release, the Alphabet-owned YouTube reported that some testers have seen success with this feature. Creators who used it saw an unexpected surge to 25% of their watch time coming from views in the video’s non-primary language.
For example, a celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver’s views exponentially raised to thrice after using the audio dub feature.
Moreover, YouTube has been experimenting with multi-language thumbnails with a few creators. Since June, the company now allowed users to customize thumbnails to show text in other languages, attracting international audiences.
The localised thumbnails are particularly designed to include text that matches the viewers’s preferred languages.
This move is a part of the company's effort to help creators reach a wider global audience, and plans with broader rollout in the near future.