Microsoft has just gone one step further in its mission to help bring down the language barrier. Skype translator is now available to all Skype for Windows customers (the roll-out actually started in October 2015), Microsoft announced in a blog post. Over a year ago the Skype Translator preview was released in partnership with Microsoft Translator, and while it’s far from perfect – just as most translation tools are – Microsoft has, in the words of the Skype team, “been working hard to make this dream a reality.” Because it uses machine learning to improve, the more it’s used the better it gets, so we might hope the completed roll-out might equate to more coherence in time.

At the moment, voice-to-voice translation is available to all Windows customers in Chinese Mandarin, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, but Microsoft says it’s working on rolling out more languages. Text-to-text translation is currently available in over 50 languages.

A spokesperson from Skype told SiliconANGLE the Skype team has had a busy year: “We’ve worked hard to keep pace and improve our services through innovation and research focused teams, like prototyping days for engineers to explore new concepts and features that are not yet in development. This has enabled us to deliver features like HD video calling across every major platform, including Skype Translator, Skype for HoloLens and features like guest invites for groups of people.”

If you find yourself wanting to talk to someone who speaks one of the aforementioned languages then click on the globe in the top right-hand corner of the app. If you don’t see the globe then you will have to update the Skype for Windows app from Skype.com.

Out of interest, Skype mentioned a few facts concerning the translation app. According to Skype, French to English is the most common language pair, while the most international Skype Translator calling corridor is Germany to Ghana. Skype also says in all calls per day has increased 400 percent since the app was launched.

Photo credit: Skype