YouTube for Android TV gains a 'dubbed' tag for AI translated audio

Introduced a few months ago, the AI dubbing function is one of the few excellent uses of the technology to try and open videos to a wider global audience. To help with that YouTube on Android TV now has a “Dubbed” tag to help you see which videos have been translated using AI.

Over the weekend we spotted a “Dubbed” tag appearing on some content when scrolling through the YouTube interface on Android TV and Google TV hardware. At the moment it looks like rare occurrence. Searching for the same video titled “100 Layer Sfogliatella” you might not see the tag. Instead, it will play with the auto-dubbed audio in your region. This is the default with non-native language videos based on your region.

The new “Dubbed” tag is similar to the “Subtitles” tag you might also see when navigating the TV-based interface and is merely a grey text box under the video title, channel, and view count. There is a little person-speaking icon to indicate that the original audio is likely not in your native tongue. Annoyingly, this isn’t easy to replicate, but we caught it on the YouTube homescreen:

It’s unclear quite how widely this new tag is available, but it will depend heavily on the creator. On desktop, this will appear when you open up the video and is visible under the title. On TVs, it’s not possible to see this as the player controls are minimized as soon as you select the content – hence this differentiation.

AI-dubbed audio is available to all YouTube creators, but it can be disabled during the upload process. When it works, the feature is very good, but like all things AI, it isn’t perfect, and certain translations will lack nuance or specific regional variations. However, this might, at the very least, give you more videos to watch when kicking back and watching YouTube on your smart TV or Android TV box.

More on Android TV:

• Nvidia Shield TV gets its first widely-available update in two years – what’s new
• Walmart keeps up support for its 2021 Android TV box with new update available
• New Nvidia Shield TV update available, but might cause Google Home issues