- Live subtitles
- Built for Google Meet
Read a Google Meet call in your language while it is happening
Subtitles appear over the meeting window a moment after each phrase is spoken, and your own replies are spoken back in the other language with the original audio turned down.
The trial gives you 30 minutes of live translation, no payment card required.
26 languages, any pair, chosen before you join.
The call this page was written for
A customer escalation gets moved up and you are on the call in forty minutes. The customer's engineers speak Polish to each other and switch to careful English for you, which means you catch about two thirds of what matters and ask them to repeat the rest. With subtitles running you read the Polish as it is spoken, and your answers reach them in Polish without you attempting any.
What this looks like during the call
Live transcript
ESENNear-real-time subtitles over the meeting window, plus a spoken translation for the other side.
El proyecto piloto duró dos semanas más, así que las cifras finales solo llegan el jueves.
The pilot project ran two weeks longer, so the final numbers only land on Thursday.
Entonces movamos la revisión al viernes por la mañana. Hoy aviso al cliente.
Then let's move the review to Friday morning. I'll let the client know today.
Me sirve. Mándame el borrador la noche anterior, con el desglose de costes.
Works for me. Send me the draft the evening before, with the cost breakdown.
Action items
Built for Google Meet- Move the review to Friday morning
- Tell the client today that the numbers land Thursday
- Send the draft with the cost breakdown on Thursday evening
How to set it up
MeetVoice is a Chrome extension plus a companion desktop app. The extension reads the Google Meet tab you already have open and the desktop app coordinates the session from your machine, so no extra participant is added to the call.
Step 1Install MeetVoice before the call starts
Add the extension from the Chrome Web Store and install the desktop app. Speech recognition is included, so there is no key to obtain and nothing to configure on a first run.
Step 2Pick your language pair and a voice
Choose the language you will hear and the language you will be heard in, then pick a male or female voice for the spoken translation. Both settings live in the panel next to the meeting.
Step 3Press Start when you join
Subtitles appear over the Google Meet window shortly after each phrase, and your own speech is spoken back to the other side. The subtitle layer itself is never shown to the other participants.
What usually goes wrong
- Whatever Google Meet shows you stays inside the call window: nothing is spoken back in the other language, and nothing is left to read once the call ends.
- Asking somebody to repeat a sentence three times costs more goodwill than getting it slightly wrong once.
- A caption in a language you do not speak is not help; it is the same problem in smaller type.
Why this holds up in a real call
- Subtitles are drawn in your own browser tab, so nobody else in the call sees what you are reading.
- Subtitles and voice-over run in both directions at once, so neither side has to do the translating.
- The original audio is turned down while the translated voice speaks, so the two do not fight each other in your headphones.
How the three options compare
What Google Meet does on its own
Google Meet can put captions on that call and, for some pairs, translate them for you. What it cannot do is say your reply back in Polish, and the translated-caption pairs it supports are a much shorter list than the languages your customers actually use.
Google Meet can show captions and, for a limited set of pairs, translated captions. They are read on screen while the call runs: nothing is spoken back in the other language and nothing is left as a file afterwards.
| What you are comparing | MeetVoice | Google Meet built-in captions | Notetaker bot that joins the call |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can you follow the call while it is happening? | Yes — near-real-time subtitles in your language, plus a spoken translation the other side hears. | Partly — captions, and translated captions for a limited set of pairs. | No — notetaker bots are built for what happens after the call. |
| Is anything spoken back in the other language? | Yes — a male or female voice, with the original audio turned down while it speaks. | No — captions are text only. | No — the output is a written artefact produced later. |
| Who can see the subtitles you are reading? | Only you. They are drawn in your browser tab and never become part of the shared meeting view. | Only you, but each participant has to switch their own on. | Not applicable — nothing is shown during the call. |
| How many language pairs are available? | Any pair out of 26 languages, chosen before you join and changeable between calls. | A shorter list of translated-caption pairs than of caption languages. | Vendor-dependent, and usually applied to the written record rather than to the live call. |
Questions people ask before installing
How much delay is there between speech and subtitle?
Near-real-time: a phrase is recognised, translated and drawn while the speaker is still going. That is close enough to follow a conversation, not close enough to interrupt on an exact word.
Do the other participants see my subtitles?
No. The subtitle layer belongs to your own browser tab. What the other side does notice is the spoken translation of your replies, which is rather the point.
What happens if three or four languages are spoken in one call?
Switch on multilingual mode in the panel and pick up to four participant languages — this mode covers incoming speech only and runs on your own speech-to-text API key. Each segment is detected and translated into your language, with speaker names and colour tags so the thread stays readable.
Do I need my own speech-recognition key?
No. Recognition is included in the trial and in every paid plan. You can connect your own speech-to-text API key if you would rather the audio went straight to your provider, and doing so also lifts the monthly hour limit of your plan.
Follow a call in a language you do not speak, while it is still happening.
The trial gives you 30 minutes of live translation, no payment card required.
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