YouTube announced on Wednesday that its multi-language audio feature has officially launched after a two-year-long pilot. Now, millions of YouTubers can add dubbing to their videos in different languages, helping them reach a wider global audience. The rollout is expected to happen over the coming weeks.
The feature initially launched as a pilot in 2023, available to a limited number of creators, including MrBeast, Mark Rober, and chef Jamie Oliver. Creators had to work with third-party dubbing services until YouTube introduced an AI-powered auto-dubbing tool that leverages Google’s Gemini technology to replicate a creator’s tone and emotions.
Since its launch, YouTube reports that several testers have seen success with this feature. On average, those who uploaded multi-language audio tracks saw over 25% of their watch time coming from views in the video’s non-primary language. Jamie Oliver’s channel, for instance, 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 been able to customize thumbnails to display text in other languages, catering to their international audience. The localized thumbnails are designed to include text that matches the viewers’ preferred languages.