YouTube Viewers In India Can Switch Audio Tracks To Regional Languages

Indian viewers watching YouTube videos could soon switch audio tracks to their preferred regional language. Google has indicated that it is testing a feature that offers multiple audio tracks in different languages. Given the sheer number of Indian languages, the feature could gradually include more audio tracks. Let's see how Google is trying to boost the inclusiveness of its YouTube platform.

Multi-Track Regional Audio For Indian YouTube Videos

At the 'Google for India' event, the search giant confirmed YouTube is testing a new feature that lets viewers switch audio tracks in a wide range of Indian languages. Speaking about the multi-track audio feature, Ishan John Chatterjee, the director of YouTube India, said:

"Video is a particularly effective format for sharing health information in ways that are accessible and digestible not only to a professional audience but to everyone. We want to help truly democratize important health information."

"And, we remain committed to working closely with experts in healthcare and investing in technologies that will enable them to create multilingual content efficiently, to reach audiences at scale."

As indicated by Chatterjee, the feature is currently available in select videos that dispense information about healthcare. Needless to mention, this is a promising feature that could easily boost the viewership of videos, ensure better exposure, and add new viewers.

How To Switch Audio Track In A YouTube Video?

Videos uploaded on YouTube will have the ability to include multiple audio tracks. Such content will essentially contain multilingual audio, and videos should get a new setting called "Audio track".

Tapping on the setting would reveal a list of the available audio tracks. Users can tap on the language of their choice and the video would continue playing in the chosen language. The current language choice is limited to English, Hindi, Punjabi, and Marathi. Moreover, only a few healthcare videos have the option to switch audio language.

The number of videos and audio languages should gradually grow as more YouTubers upload videos with multilingual audio. Google has indicated that it is testing another product called "Aloud" with a few creators. This product is supposed to help creators in transcribing, translating, and dubbing original content in various languages. The company did not confirm the languages this dubbing product supports.