YouTube announced on Wednesday that its multi-language audio feature has officially launched after a two-year-long pilot. Now, millions of creators can add dubbing to their videos in different languages, which helps them reach a wider global audience. The full rollout is expected to happen over the coming weeks.
This feature first launched as a pilot program in 2023. It was initially available to a limited number of creators, including MrBeast, Mark Rober, and chef Jamie Oliver. Initially, creators had to work with third-party dubbing services. Later, YouTube introduced an AI-powered auto-dubbing tool that uses Google’s Gemini technology to replicate a creator’s tone and emotions.
Since its initial launch, YouTube reports that several testers have found success with this feature. On average, creators who uploaded multi-language audio tracks received over 25% of their watch time from views in the video’s non-primary language. For example, Jamie Oliver’s channel tripled in views after using multi-language audio tracks.
Additionally, the company has been testing multi-language thumbnails with a select group of creators. Since June, creators have had the ability to customize thumbnails to display text in other languages. This feature caters to an international audience by showing localized thumbnails with text that matches the viewers’ preferred languages.