At the Google Pixel 2 event earlier this month, Google has revealed their new wireless headphones, the Google Pixel Buds. The reveal has caused lots of excitement due to their power to translate between 40 languages (in combination with Google’s Pixel 2 handset) in real-time.

The Google Pixel Buds are wireless headphones designed for use with Google’s new Pixel 2 handset. Once paired with the handset, you tap the right earpiece and voice to Google Assistant your command, ie. directions, make a call, text etc.

The exciting part is that you can also say something like, “help me speak Japanese” and then start speaking in English, the phone’s speakers will output your translated words as you speak them. When the other party replies in their language, it will then play into your ear in English through the Pixel Buds. If the technology works as it says it will, this is an exciting step forward for global communication.

Translation technology has been improving and over the past couple of years and has been taken on by big names. Skype released their Live Translation feature in 2015, which works with four languages for spoken audio and 50 languages over instant messenger. Most of these previous technologies though are not quite in real-time and often have a lag between the original and translated messages.

Microsoft also released earlier this year, PowerPoint “Presentation Translator” add-in. When using an iOS or Android app, Presentation Translator can convert your voice over into Spanish or Chinese in real-time.

Waverly Labs, a startup who crowdfunded their pilot project on wearable translation technology — speech recognition, machine translation and the advances in wearable technology is now in a tough spot due to Google launching the tech before them. Google not only beat them to it but are offering 40 languages instead of Waverly’s 15 and for a price of $160 instead of $300. Great for us consumers but bad news for the small startup.

The matter that this technology is being released now through major companies such as Google will bring new heights to global communication technology and will set the bar high for the competition. The implications are greater than the technology itself, with language barriers falling, communication world-wide will likely only improve. It is exciting to also see where this technology will go from here and how companies like Apple will respond in the likely near future.

If you would like to discuss Google’s new Pixel 2 handset, available to customers on 19th October or the Google Pixel Buds, available in November, please be in touch with us at [email protected].