YouTube is improving its auto-dubbing feature further to make it easier for viewers to watch videos in languages they actually understand. Auto-dubbing uses AI to translate and replace a video’s spoken audio with a dubbed version in another language.
The feature now supports 27 languages, and viewers can set a preferred language in YouTube’s settings. When a dubbed version is available, YouTube will automatically serve it in the selected language. So if a video exists in another language, YouTube wants it to feel accessible the moment you press play.
YouTube is making auto-dubs sound more natural
YouTube says it knows dubbing can feel awkward if it sounds robotic or out of sync. To address this, the company has rolled out Expressive Speech, a feature designed to preserve tone, emotion, and pacing in translated audio.
It is currently available for all YouTube channels in English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, with more languages expected later.
The platform is also testing a Lip Sync pilot, which subtly adjusts a speaker’s lip movements to better match the translated audio. This will make dubbed videos feel closer to the original, especially for viewers who find mismatched audio and visuals distracting.
Auto-dubs are generated automatically, but creators are not locked in. They can disable auto-dubbing entirely or upload their own dubbed versions if they prefer more control.
YouTube also uses automatic smart filtering to avoid dubbing content that does not make sense to translate, such as music-only videos or silent vlogs.
However, YouTube acknowledges that auto-dubs can still contain errors, often caused by imperfect speech recognition or unclear audio. The company says these systems will improve over time as more feedback comes in.
Apart from auto-dubbing, YouTube is also leaning into AI-driven personalization through its Recap feature that assigns users a personality based on their watch history, adding another layer to how content is understood and surfaced.