Google expands AI support across hundreds of languages

Google says its products and research now support everyday interactions in more than 300 languages, used by more than 7 billion people. The company says the goal is to move beyond basic text translation and build AI that better understands realworld speech, including tone, emotion, codeswitching, and local cultural context. The post highlights several efforts, including Gemini 3.5 Live Translate, Gemini 3.5 Transcribe, and TranslateGemma, a lightweight ondevice translation model. Google also points to its 1,000 Languages Initiative, work with local partners such as universities and community groups, and projects aimed at improving speech tools for underrepresented languages and sign languages. Google says it is also designing tools for people with limited internet access or older phones. Examples include translation models that can run ondevice and a voice assistant for feature phones through a partnership with Viamo. The company says these efforts are intended to make language technology more accessible while better reflecting how people actually communicate.