Google launches Gemini 3.5 Live Translate, voice-preserving real-time speech translation in 70+ languages
On 2026-06-09 Google released Gemini 3.5 Live Translate, an audio-to-audio model that translates speech continuously a few seconds behind the speaker while preserving their intonation, pacing and pitch. It auto-detects 70+ languages, ships in the Gemini Live API (preview), Google Translate on Android/iOS and Google Meet (private preview, 5 to 70+ languages).
Key facts
- Model id gemini-3.5-live-translate-preview; ~$0.0053/min audio in, ~$0.0315/min audio out
- 70+ languages auto-detected; 2,000+ language combinations in one meeting
- Continuous (not turn-by-turn) output, streamed in 100 ms chunks (press); SynthID watermark on outputs
- Model card 'Gemini 3.5 Audio' (dated 2026-08-26, also covers Transcribe/Transcribe Live): no numeric evals in the card; knowledge cutoff Jan 2025; no Frontier Safety Framework Tracked or Critical Capability Level reached; limitations include inconsistent voices and weak detection of non-native accents and rapid language switching
- Google Translate app gains a headphone 'listening mode'; early testers include Grab, CJ ENM and LiveKit
What happened
Google introduced a dedicated live speech-translation model and rolled it into consumer (Translate), enterprise (Meet) and developer (Live API) surfaces at once.
Why it matters
Voice-preserving simultaneous interpretation moved from demos into products used by hundreds of millions of people, competing directly with OpenAI's gpt-realtime-translate released a month earlier.
Changelog
- 2026-09-29: created
- 2026-09-29: read the Gemini 3.5 Audio model card; added its safety result and limitations
Models
- Gemini 3.5 Live Translate Google DeepMind · preview
Related posts (1)
- Google Google @Google · x · 2026-06-09
Cited as a source by: 2026-06-09-gemini-3-5-live-translate
Related events
- OpenAI releases GPT-Realtime-2 (reasoning voice), GPT-Realtime-Translate and GPT-Realtime-Whisper ★★★
- Google ships Gemini 3.8 Live voice models and Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS with voice design and cloning ★★
- ByteDance Seed LiveInterpret 2.0: end-to-end Chinese-English simultaneous interpretation in your own voice, ~3 s behind ★★★
Sources (4)
- officialGoogle - Fluid, natural voice translation with Gemini 3.5 Live Translate
- docsGemini API model page
- officialGoogle DeepMind - Gemini 3.5 Audio model card (Live Translate, Transcribe, Transcribe Live)
- officialGoogle on X - developers can use Gemini 3.5 Live Translate
id: 2026-06-09-gemini-3-5-live-translate · updated 2026-09-29 · open in the interactive timeline