Skype announced Tuesday that the beta version of its Translator Preview feature is now available to all users of Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Technical Preview. Users may now take advantage of this handy tool without the need for a sign-up or wait list.

Basically, Skype's latest feature allows people to have spoken conversations with people who speak different languages, be it Italian, Mandarin, or Spanish. Moreover, it also has 50 instant messaging (IM) languages, where consumers can send text messages in their language, only to have the recipient read it in his or her own language of choice.

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This feature helps close the language barrier, and allows consumers to casually converse with others without having to stop every now and then to stare into a thesaurus. There are more than 300 million Skype users today, and with the Translator, the chat platform aims to transform communication between each of their loyal consumers.

Ever since Skype first launched its Translator preview back in December of last year, one of the very first organizations to adopt it into their system is Pro Mujer International, a New York City-based nonprofit developmental organization that aims to provide Latin American women with opportunities for essential financial, health, and human development services. With Skype's Translator feature, English speakers are now able to effectively communicate with those who speak Spanish.

In the test by Gizmodo, beta testers found that while Skype's speech recognition is good and picks up words quite fast, there are a few hurdles that still need to be met before the feature can be fully effective. For one, speakers need to talk a bit slower than usual, so as to give their minds time to process the live translation feed. Users also need to watch their sentence pauses, because the system might register a fragment as a complete sentence when the speaker pauses long enough.

TagsSkype, translator, live translation, video chat, Instant Messaging