Skype Realtime Translation Coming by End of 2014

App will continue to be free for consumer use
By Jason Mick - May 28, 2014

Microsoft Corp. is racing Google Inc. to have the platform with the best voice translation. And it appears that at long last, the Star Trek vision for a Universal Translator has almost been made a reality.

Just weeks ago, Quest Visual -- whose app "Word Lens" offer real-time translation via a smartphone camera of Spanish printed signage -- was acquired by Google for an undisclosed sum. Google said it will continue to support the standalone app for Android and its rival Apple, Inc.'s iOS for now, but that ongoing development will shift to tightly-integrated, platform-exclusive features integrated into Android OS, Chrome OS, and Google's web API. There are currently a number of apps claiming real-time voice translation on Android; virtually all of them use the Google Translate API.

On Google and Windows Phone, there's the third party "iTranslate" app that includes the feature iTranslate AirTranslate (it offers real-time translation of phone calls to a speaker of a different language). iTranslate is well established, calling itself the "most used" iOS translation app. But it will soon have some tough competition.

Microsoft announced this week at the inaugural Code Conference (#CodeCon) in Rancho Palo Verdes, Calif. that a beta of Skype was coming with real-time translation by the end of 2014.

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