rewrite this title I tried Pixel 10’s Voice Translate on real calls: Here’s the good and the bad

Google is constantly pushing the boundaries of AI in its Phone app, and the new Voice Translate feature on the Pixel 10 series is one of its most ambitious attempts yet. The idea is to break down language barriers in real time and make phone conversations smoother when you and the person on the other end speak completely different languages. What’s even more fascinating is that Voice Translate attempts to mimic the voice of the speakers in order to make conversations sound more natural. I decided to test out this sorcery for myself, translating calls between English and Hindi (my mother tongue), and came away with a mix of awe, amusement, and a few headaches.

You might remember Google I/O earlier this year, when the company introduced Speech Translation for Google Meet. Voice Translate is essentially that technology brought to your phone, specifically, the Pixel 10 series.

Instead of just converting words, Voice Translate attempts to recreate the speaker’s voice in the translated language. In theory, this means the person on the other end hears your voice speaking their language, and you hear their voice in yours. It’s like magic, until it’s not.

The feature is built into the Google Phone app, and supports English plus ten other languages: French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. You don’t need an internet connection to actually translate once the language packs are downloaded, although downloading them obviously requires Wi-Fi or mobile data. One limitation to keep in mind is that you can only select one language for yourself, which can feel restrictive if you are multilingual and switch languages often.

To use Voice Translate on your Pixel 10, you have to enable it from the Phone app’s call assist settings. You pick your language, download the necessary modules, and then make a call. From there, the AI listens, translates, and outputs your voice as well as the speaker’s voice in your target language.

There’s a catch, though. The phone doesn’t automatically detect a language barrier. You need to manually start Voice Translation and select the language that the person on the other end speaks. Once you do that, the AI announces that the call is being translated, and the translations begin.

Also, the feature only translates your voice in the language you’ve chosen for yourself, so if you throw in a word from another language, the AI will do its best to match it to the closest equivalent in your selected language, and it can often go hilariously wrong, as I’ll describe in the following sections.

I tested Voice Translate with English and Hindi, switching roles in conversations to see how each side would experience it. Right off the bat, it was clear that this isn’t a perfect simulation of a real bilingual conversation.

The translated voice of the person I was speaking to sounded like them, just not fully. Tone, pauses, and expressions didn’t carry over in the translations for both me and the person on the other line. So while the conversations feel human-like to a great degree, you can definitely tell you’re talking to an AI-generated voice. I could also hear a faint hint of my own voice translated to the other person in their language, but interestingly, they couldn’t hear themselves being translated.

Speed is a bit of an issue, too. You have to speak quite slowly and pause for the translation to process properly. It’s not a glacial pace, but it’s not instant either, like Google demonstrated on stage during the Pixel 10 series launch. There’s a “preparing” prompt with a spinning circle when you speak and a “translating” prompt when the other person finishes talking. Watching those circles spin mid-conversation feels a bit like waiting for a loading web page, and if someone keeps talking over the other, or talks too fast, parts of the conversation almost always get lost.

Before I get into how accurate the translations were during my time with Voice Translate, I must say that having a feature like this in the first place is a big deal. How well Google’s AI translates a language also depends on the language. Google might do a better job with other languages, like French or Spanish, than Hindi, which also happens to be in preview right now.

That said, the audio translation is surprisingly decent and usable. For the most part, the person on the other line and I could understand what was being said, even if the voice was not exactly a 100% match for each speaker. But the text transcription simultaneously appearing on the screen had more noticeable errors and delays.

Sometimes the translations are too literal, stripping away the context of what’s being said. For example, I said, “I’m going to hang up now,” in English, and it was translated into Hindi to mean “I am going to go hang on something.” Hilarious, but not at all what I meant.

There was also a gender mismatch issue in one of my calls. I said something in English, and the Hindi translation used masculine phrasing, even though I am a woman. It reminded me of all those times spam credit card companies call me and start with, “Hi, am I speaking to Adamya Sir?” before I even open my mouth. While Voice Translate accurately accounted for my gender in most calls, it’s not something that always works, and when it doesn’t, it can make some sentences sound off.

Interruptions also confuse the AI. A cough, laugh, sudden pause, or hesitation can cause it to skip or misinterpret entire segments of speech.

Voice Translate shines in short, focused calls. Think things like booking a hotel room abroad, checking a restaurant reservation when traveling, or confirming a business detail. For casual, quick interactions, it’s fascinating to hear the AI trying to replicate someone’s voice in your language.

Long conversations, however, are a different story. The need for pauses, the slow back-and-forth, and the text translation quirks make extended calls quite cumbersome. Unless you’re okay with a tired, stilted chat, I’d recommend sticking to messaging or email for more nuanced and accurate discussions.

I think Google’s Voice Translate is a genuinely cool feature for real-time phone communication across languages. Even in its current state, the fact that it exists at all is commendable. It’s not perfect, and it’s definitely not as natural as Google might want it to be, but there’s something undeniably exciting about hearing someone speak your language instantly, even if it’s slightly robotic, literal, or, at times, misgendered.

While it doesn’t replace the way human beings actually speak in its current state, I can see Voice Translate being very helpful for travelers, casual multilingual chats, or quick calls you can’t avoid. You just have to be patient, speak slowly, and maybe explain to the other person how the experience works.

In short, Voice Translate on the Pixel 10 is a bit quirky, sometimes funny, sometimes frustrating, but mostly impressive enough to make you feel like the future is already here. At the breakneck speed of progress in AI these days, though, I’m sure many of these quirks and issues will be ironed out in no time. I can’t wait to see what the next-gen version of this feature sounds like.