“It has been a long-time dream at Skype to break down language barriers and bring everyone across the globe closer together,” the post reads.

It’s as simple as selecting a contact, clicking the Settings gear icon, and enabling Skype Translator by ensuring the Globe icon is lit blue. As far as setup is concerned, it’s a relatively straightforward process, as depicted in the video embedded below. Languages compatible with video chat translation include English, French, German, Italian, Mandarin, and Spanish. The service, which is built directly into the Skype for Windows desktop app, is capable of translating 6 different languages over video chat and 50 over text messaging. Now that same translation technology has the chance to bring various cultures together on a global level with the final consumer release of the software, according to a Skype Team blog post. Late last year, Microsoft made available to a small pool of ambitious testers a near-instant language translation app for Skype, appropriately titled Skype Translator.

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