Google Meet now offers live translation captioning. This allows the video chat platform to translate foreign languages in real time, potentially making international phone calls and business meetings easier.

This beta feature was announced this week via Google Workspace Update and is currently only available to select Google Meet users. However, as with most new beta features, it is expected to be made available to all users once it has been fully tested. However, Google has not yet announced when this feature will exit beta.

Live translation captions will turn Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German spoken in real time during a Google Meet into fully translated English subtitles. Currently, this feature only translates from the above four languages to English, but Google may expand these capabilities further.

This is a fairly significant upgrade from Google Meet's existing live captioning feature. The platform has been able to turn spoken words into captions for quite some time, but translating foreign languages would be a very welcome enhancement.

Google explains that live translated captions make "Google Meet video calls more global, inclusive, and effective by removing language ability as a barrier to collaboration."

"By making content available to users in their preferred language, we can equalize information sharing, learning, and collaboration to make meetings as effective as possible.

The technology giant also noted that live translation captioning could be very useful in educational settings. This feature would allow teachers to communicate with a variety of students who do not speak the same language, as well as increase the inclusiveness of parents from diverse backgrounds.

In beta, this feature is only available for Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus, and Teaching & Learning Upgrade users hosting This feature is only available for meetings hosted by Google Workspace Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Plus and Teaching & Learning Upgrade users. If you meet the criteria, you may request access to this feature now.