You receive a voice message in a language you do not speak, and a moment later you can hear it in yours. It feels like magic, but it is a chain of three well-understood steps. Knowing them also explains why results are sometimes imperfect.
Step 1: Speech to text
First, speech recognition turns the audio into written text in the speaker's language. This step is sensitive to audio quality. Background noise, a distant microphone, a strong accent or a fast pace can all cause mistakes, and anything misheard here is carried through the rest of the chain.
Step 2: Translation
Next, the text is translated into the listener's language. Modern AI translation reads the whole sentence rather than word by word, which helps with grammar and word order. It still struggles with idioms, slang, sarcasm, rare dialects and specialist terms, and with names that look like ordinary words.
Step 3: Text to speech
Finally, the translated text can be read aloud with a synthetic voice in the listener's language, so you can listen instead of reading. Many people like to see the text as well, which is why a transcript next to the message is useful: you can glance at it to confirm a name or a number.
What affects quality
- Audio clarity: quiet room, microphone close to your mouth.
- Pace and pauses: speak a little slower and pause between thoughts.
- Message length: several short messages usually translate better than one long monologue.
- Names and numbers: say them slowly, and repeat them if they matter.
- Plain wording: everyday words survive translation better than idioms.
Privacy: a fair question to ask
Voice is personal data. Before you rely on any translation feature, read how the service handles recordings and transcripts, and what controls you have, such as deleting your data and your account. AICO's approach is described in its Privacy Policy and in the AI Features section of the Trust Center.
How AICO does it
In AICO, a voice message is transcribed, the text is translated, and it is read out in your language, with the transcript shown right next to it. If you would rather read, you can. If you want to be sure about a detail, you can check it. For real-time conversations, calls support translated subtitles. More answers are in the FAQ.
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