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YouTube No Translation

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Re: YouTube No Translation

#71

I actually appreciate the YouTube's auto-translate feature a lot because it allows me to search through videos in languages I don't know but still like to view videos and listen to videos in. For example, I listen to a lot of city pop and anime title songs on YouTube and a lot of them have titles in Japanese only. I absolutely would not find it as easy as I do to search through this content and listen to the music if…

> This is why I find some of the comments on this thread surprising. In general, some of the loudest voices in any given community are the ones who are dissatisfied with the thing in question. So, there are many people (or at least the two of us!) who are reasonably satisfied with this feature and find it helpful.

Well, it's not that I don't see how this feature can add value for others, it just doesn't add value for me (it directly detracts value, actually), and I would like to be able to disable it without installing a browser extension.

Re: YouTube No Translation

#72
On the topic of multi-lingual - I frequently use airplay to cast to my apple tv from my laptop but a large number of videos now have alternative language tracks that apple decides to play and there's no way to change it. No language tracks show up. Worse is it changes language tracks after a few seconds.

Any have any idea how to fix this?

Re: YouTube No Translation

#73
post #4

Why would I want this? I watched a translated YouTube video and it was great. If I don't want the translated sound track there's a button right there in settings to change it. Why do I need this extension?

>People make free things for other people who need it >"Why would I want this?"

Having the option is fine.

But showing me bad English translations of video titles from my native language without option to disable is stupid.

Defaulting to auto dubbed videos for a language I speak and having to hit that small button each time is annoying.

It's cool for some stuff, when I don't speak the language, and where the content is valuable, but it has to be an option.

(Also, I for one pay for YouTube premium)

Re: YouTube No Translation

#76
post #8

It's surprising how hostile youtube is to multilingual users. Probably all in some attempt to show off their translation capability or to improve the experience for users who may want to access content in a language they don't speak? Or it's just as dumb as this was on some product managers "designed and implemented" line to get promoted? But, surely someone sane there has to realize there is a large number of users…

> Or it's just as dumb as this was on some product managers "designed and implemented" line to get promoted?

I'd suspect it's something banal, such as: $goal --> translate by default --> enough users click through by mistake (AB test shows user interest) --> more preroll ads shown to users (AB test shows business value) --> promotion

Whether the $goal was {accessibility, show off translations, UX improvement} is quite irrelevant for a business that optimizes for revenue from ads.

Re: YouTube No Translation

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to do these assumptions, youtube accounts are google accounts and google already supports setting multiple languages that you speak/read.

It doesn't work, you can set all the languages you speak on your Google account settings, and Youtube will still change every video title and audio track to either your default language on settings, or your system language. At this point I don't even know what stupid decision between the two above the Youtube backend is choosing.

Yes, this. Google still doesn't get even the Accept-Language header right, which is shocking, because they're Google.

Re: YouTube No Translation

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's crazy is the US actually does have a decent proportion of multilingual speakers thanks to its history of immigration (a quick search reveals 20% of American residents are bilingual). Even Google staff should be a pretty multicultural bunch of people as they recruit globally.

I mean... 20% is not really a lot. It's probably a lot closer to 100% in most countries of the world.

Is it? That doesn’t sound right.

Re: YouTube No Translation

#79
post #8

It's surprising how hostile youtube is to multilingual users. Probably all in some attempt to show off their translation capability or to improve the experience for users who may want to access content in a language they don't speak? Or it's just as dumb as this was on some product managers "designed and implemented" line to get promoted? But, surely someone sane there has to realize there is a large number of users…

I'm lucky enough that I mostly only consume English content on Youtube and not my native language, so I just set everything to English.

But yeah, it's incredibly stupid.

Re: YouTube No Translation

#80

It is insane to me that you cannot turn it off in the setting even as a premium user. Or better yet, make this opt-in for everyone. I live in a German speaking country, yet my native language is other and German is almost never preferred when I watch some content. All my UIs are in English. Yet, I open a video by a Brit and he is autodubbed to German. There really isn't any similar UX decision by any other reputed co…

Adding to my previous comment, in Switzerland, people speak very specific Swiss German, yet the videos are autodubbed to 'hoch' (standard) German.

It's a bit of an exaggeration, but it is as if a person is Lisbon would get their videos dubbed to Spanish.

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