YouTube has rolled out the ability to translate comments that are not written in your native language.
The new feature works similarly to translate features on other social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Starting this week, viewers on YouTube mobile apps will see a new “Translate” button below comments written in foreign languages. Tapping it will instantly translate that comment to their native language. Once the comment has been translated, that button is replaced by a “See original” button, with a “Translated by Google” mark. As expected, it will let you switch to the original version. YouTube says users can translate comments between more than 100 languages.
YouTube has been testing this feature for the past few months. It is now available to users on both Android and iOS YouTube apps. The company doesn’t tell if and when this feature will arrive on the web version. We will be keeping an eye on it.
Another YouTube Experiments feature rolls out publicly.
YouTube lets users try out new and upcoming features before rolling out them publicly via its Experiments portal. And as said earlier, the ability to translate comments has been in Experiments for the past few months, though only Premium subscribers could access it.
The company earlier picked random users for such beta testing. However, in October last year, it made Experiments exclusive to Premium subscribers. YouTube also recently made the portal more accessible by bringing it to mobile apps.
As of now, the YouTube Experiments portal lists only one beta feature: picture-in-picture (PiP) for iOS. It’s an iOS-only feature, of course. It lets iPhone users watch YouTube videos while using some other app. The video will appear in a tiny, floating window over other apps.
Opening a YouTube video in PiP on iPhones is fairly simple.
You can either swipe up or press home while the video is playing in the YouTube app. Locking your phone will pause the video. However, you can use the lock screen media controls to resume it. This feature will be available in Experiments until October 31st. It should roll out to the public soon after.
For Android users, meanwhile, there aren’t any new YouTube features currently in testing. But the ability to translate comments should be available anytime now if it hasn’t already. You can download the latest version of the YouTube app for Android from the Google Play Store by clicking the button below.