With over 2 billion users logged in every month from all over the world, it’s amazing that this feature didn’t exist yet. But here we are now.
YouTube officially roll out(opens in new tab) Its new multi-language audio track feature will serve its global creator user base. Previously in testing and only available to select creators, the feature allows YouTubers to upload multiple different audio tracks to one of her videos. This allows content creators to offer dubbed video content and uploaded audio tracks that give viewers the option to watch in their primary language.
YouTube says the results have been very positive among the small test group of creators it has worked with. YouTube found that more than 15% of his viewership was due to dubbed videos viewed in languages other than the channel’s primary language in the last month. In January, an average of 2 million hours of dubbed video were watched on the platform every day. This is his one of over 3,500 dubbed videos uploaded to the platform that month. YouTube dubbed videos currently feature about 40 different languages.
To really highlight how big a feature this is, YouTube has release(opens in new tab) A video that sits down with one of our most popular creators, Mr. Beast, detailing his experience working with dubbed videos as part of the first test group.
Creators uploaded dubbed video content before this feature was available. But before, these YouTubers had to upload a separate new video for each language option. However, these language options can now be provided with the original video upload.
Viewers can check if their favorite video is available in multiple languages by simply clicking on the video’s settings (gear icon) in the YouTube player. This is where you would normally choose options regarding the playback quality of your video, but dubbed videos will also see the new Audio His Tracks feature. In brackets, YouTube informs the viewer of the number of language options it offers, and the user can select one from a dropdown her menu.
Creators can upload multilingual audio tracks from within the subtitle editor tool for certain videos. YouTubers can also go back to their library and upload multilingual audio tracks for all existing content.
YouTube first launched subtitles and closed captioning features for videos way home(opens in new tab) Nearly 15 years later, users can now hear content in their native language. Creators now have to make these alternative multilingual tracks themselves, but it seems it’s only a matter of time before there’s an automated way to make them.
