Meta has announced that it is expanding its Reels translation feature for Instagram and Facebook to more languages. The social media giant now allows creators to translate their Reels into Hindi and Portuguese before posting them. Notably, the feature was earlier rolled out by Meta in English and Spanish in August.
Instagram Head Adam Mosseri, while explaining the need for the new feature in a video on Instagram, said, “Most of the videos on Instagram are in a language you don’t speak, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t interested in them.”
Mosseri subsequently went on to dub the rest of his video in Hindi, Spanish, and Portuguese using Meta AI. A similar demonstration was also shown on Mark Zuckerberg‘s Instagram post.
How does Meta’s dubbed Reels feature work?
Meta says that the new feature works by mimicking the sound and tone of the creator’s voice to translate Reels in order to ensure that the end result feels authentic. To ensure that the Reels feel more natural, creators will also have the option of turning on the lip-syncing feature that, as the name suggests, will sync the translated audio to the creator’s mouth movements.
The Reels dubbed with Meta AI will come with a dedicated label, “Translated with Meta AI,” in order to ensure that viewers know that AI was used in the making of the video. Meta says viewers will have the option of turning translations on or off or even watch the Reels in their original language. To do so, they will have to head over to the three-dot settings, then tap on the audio and language section, and select “Don’t translate.”
While YouTube has also been dubbing videos in various languages, Instagram’s rollout of the feature seems different with a dedicated AI label and the added consent, both for creators and viewers. While YouTube allows creators to turn off auto-dubbing for their videos, viewers have no one-stop option to turn off AI-dubbed videos.
The translation feature on Meta AI will be available to creators over 1,000 followers and to all public Instagram accounts in countries where Meta AI is available.
How to start translating Reels with Meta AI?
Creators on Facebook and Instagram will see a new “Translate your voice with Meta AI” option while uploading their Reel. They will need to click on this option and then choose whether or not to enable lip-syncing.
If you want to preview the Reel before publishing, click on the relevant option. You will then receive a notification to review and approve the translation.
