The Cologne language service DeepL expands its meeting translation DeepL Voice: instead of a synthetic voice, participants will now hear the real tone, speaking pace, and individual voice of the person speaking – across language barriers. The technology is already integrated into Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet. Those who set it up need a paid DeepL Voice subscription.
DeepL Voice now preserves your own voice
Until now, live translation services often replaced the original voice with a neutral computer voice that made all speakers sound the same. DeepL Voice now works with new language models that, according to DeepL, recognize the tone, speaking pace, rhythm, and intonation of each person and carry it over into the target language. If someone sounds hesitant or enthusiastic in German, that should also come through in the French or Spanish version.
heise online confirms that the new models are meant to keep multiple speakers in a conversation distinguishable, instead of merging them into a single AI voice. The feature initially covers around a dozen languages, including German, English, French, and Spanish. For plain translation, DeepL Voice supports more than forty languages in total.
How the translation works in a meeting
An example from office life: an assistant organizes a one-hour kick-off call with a supplier from France and colleagues from Poland. Instead of booking an interpreting agency, she connects the Teams meeting once with DeepL Voice. Each person automatically hears the others in their own language – the supplier in French, the colleagues in Polish – while it stays clear who is speaking and in what tone.
Something similar already exists after the meeting: Microsoft Teams now automatically shows meeting summaries in each participant’s own language. DeepL Voice now adds live understanding during the conversation itself.
Here is how to set up DeepL Voice for a meeting:
- Create a meeting link in the DeepL Voice app or on the web.
- Add the link to the calendar invite or the Teams chat.
- Invite the DeepL bot into the ongoing meeting.
- Select your own language in the bot window.
- Read or listen to the translation live – without any DeepL account of your own.
Only the organizer needs a paid subscription
According to the provider’s help center, DeepL Voice works differently for organizers and guests: only whoever sets up a meeting needs a paid DeepL Voice subscription. Invited participants follow the translation through the shared link without creating an account or paying anything. DeepL does not publish a concrete euro price, but a free trial subscription can be tested beforehand.
Following the same principle – basic functionality free, more scope behind a subscription – DeepL Write for business texts and document translation without loss of formatting already work this way. DeepL Voice is available as a desktop app for Windows and Mac, as a mobile app, and in the browser, each with integration into Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet. The Cologne-based company offers the feature directly for the German and European market.
What will matter is whether the voice preservation sounds as reliable in the hectic routine of daily meetings as in DeepL’s own demo examples – independent tests on this are still pending. It also remains open how DeepL handles confidential customer conversations carried over the voice feature; for sensitive topics, it is worth checking internal data protection guidelines beforehand, even though DeepL has long advertised GDPR-compliant processing for its text products.
