YouTube: Robotic translation annoys users and cannot be turned off
24 comments
·June 29, 2025phlsa
There's a Firefox extension (also available for Chrome) that turns off automatic translations and dubbing [1]
Moments like these really make me appreciate the customizability of the web experience for advanced users.
[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/youtube-no-tr...
_Algernon_
So at this point, to use YT you need:
- Ublock origin. - Sponsorblock. - DeArrow. - Youtube no translation
At what point do we collectively decide to no longer patch over enshittified bullshit?
doener
It would be great if companies content creators ag least used PeerTube additionally.
danillonunes
I also use an extension to stop automatically playing a video when I open it and another to stop automatically opening the next recommended video when the current one ends.
drdirk
In the web version it is unavoidable only in the native app you can change to the original audio.
P.S. I uninstalled the YouTube app because of YouTube Shorts and had to reinstall the app to listen to videos in the original audio.
chii
install revanced (if you're on android): https://github.com/ReVanced
it is something that allows you to make your youtube experience much, much nicer (such as removing shorts off the app).
quaintdev
If you want to block YouTube shorts just pause your watch history and clear entire history. It turns off all recommendations including shorts. You can subscription tab without any issue
Y_Y
I can easily change to original audio in my third-party app. I love using it while smoking my new pipe.
Zufriedenheit
To make matters worse, on mobile web there is no way of turning this off or switching the audio track at all :(
bombcar
I was watching a YouTube (Michael Hendrix) and wanted to cast to my TV, which replaced him with a strange Japanese voice or something.
polotics
Such typical Google arrogance.
lutusp
> ... The voice generators used by YouTube sound extremely robotic and are sometimes accelerated to 1.5 times the original speed
This might only apply to German, notorious for requiring more syllables to convey a given idea than, say, French or English.
Nevertheless, it's absurd that YouTube doesn't provide an easier way to disable this "feature".
zihotki
I noticed the same with German. And often generators have to wait because some important piece of the sentence has to be at the end in German. It's happening less in Dutch videos
fao_
Want to know what annoys users more than robotic translation? A screen-sized cookie dialogue without the option to reject all, that requires you to go through numerous forms before you can see the website content.
No way am I reading that slop.
Xelbair
you know what annoys users more than broken arm? a splinter! (and i fact i do have a splinter in my hand right now).
superkuh
I can understand why it automatically being on and coming back on would be annoying.
But the auto-dub feature itself is amazing. As an english only speaker (with a bit of german) I'm loving that now I can directly listen to Brazillian hot air balloon underground art scene videos in Portuguese, among others. Having the auto-generated subtitles was good, but now with auto-dubs it's even better. These auto-translations features really are bringing the world together in the ways the internet always promised. That's a good thing. I never would've interacted with many of these people if not for the auto translation (both ways).
tsimionescu
Dubbing in general is a horrid practice. People's voices and speech mannerisms are a big part of their personality and presence. Hiding it behind someone else's voice (or an auto-generated translation) just erases a huge part of who the other person is, for no good reason in a world where virtually everyone can read subtitles.
Imagine listening to "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse", but instead of Marlon Brandon's iconic performance, you get someone speaking another language, or an AI generated voice: you'd lose half the point of the scene.
null
superkuh
The dubs are not replacing the actual audio track. Both tracks are available if you want the original because you understand that language. You can just pick using the options menu (the gear).
The problem is that people are picking and then youtube is ignoring that on future videos and reloads instead of storing the preference.
The problem is not the availability of the auto-dubs as an option, which are undeniably great and helpful when you don't understand the language. I agree re: entertainment movies, dubs are bad. But sometimes in video media, often in fact, the speech is not about the person emoting but instead about what they are saying (ie, documentaries, reviews, etc).
tsimionescu
You can still listen to the original audio and look at subtitles if you don't understand the language. It's so dehumanizing to auto generate a replacement of the original voice. I would really hate to know that I went through the trouble of recording and sharing something for free and people were listening to an AI rendition of what I was saying.
_Algernon_
Fuck multilinguals I guess.
null
I heard that from a small Italian YouTuber who does cooking videos (Tortellino) who apologized yesterday for his video that was transformed without his knowledge and consent.
Apparently his (average) Italian accent, plus simple Italian words (spaghetti and similar ones) triggered a robotic voice that "improved" his accent and translated the Italian words.
This is insane.