Auto-dubbing in more languages, AI lip-sync and more: YouTube announces 4 features coming to app

Google-owned YouTube has announced updates to auto-dubbing tool. The company says that these new features are designed to make “global stories feel local”, expanding the service to all creators and increasing its language library. According to the company, the reception of the technology is increasing: In December 2025 alone, the platform averaged more than 6 million daily viewers who watched at least 10 minutes of auto-dubbed content.“Discovering new creators shouldn’t require a translator. Now, exploring content from all over the world is as easy as pressing play,” the company said in an announcement.Expressive Speech language support expanded to 27 languagesOne of the most significant upgrades is the expansion of Expressive Speech– a feature that moves beyond the flat, mechanical voices in favour of a creator’s original emotion, tone and energy. Expressive Speech is now available for all channels in 27, moving from eight core languages: English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.Viewers choose ‘Preferred Language’Recognising that many users are multilingual or prefer original audio, YouTube has introduced a Preferred Language setting. The platform typically defaults to a language based on users' watch history but they can now manually set preferences, ensuring that they want to hear a creator’s original voice or a specific dialect.YouTube is getting AI-Powered lip syncTo solve the visual “disconnect” often found in dubbed media, YouTube has begun testing a Lip Sync pilot. This technology subtly modifies the pixels on the screen to match the speaker’s lip movements to the translated audio. “To make auto dubs even more natural, we’re currently testing a Lip Sync pilot that subtly matches the speaker’s lip movements to the translated audio so a dubbed video feels as seamless as watching the original,” YouTube said.Creator-centric updatesYouTube also emphasised that it has made some improvements for the creator community:First is automatic smart filtering, wherein the AI now recognises content that shouldn't be dubbed, such as music videos or silent vlogs, to preserve the video’s original intent. The second improvement is discovery friendly auto dubbed tracks that do not negatively impact the original video’s algorithm.“We are committed to giving creators full agency over how their stories are told in every language, while providing viewers with the flexibility to choose how they listen. Experience the next generation of global storytelling — keep an eye out for auto-dubbing on your next video,” YouTube said.Creators can also provide their own dubs or turn them off completely.