T-Mobile call translation beta is live — no fancy phone required

One upside of the AI boom is that the adoption of live translation appears to be accelerating at a pace. Various phones, headsets, and apps are constantly improving the tech, and now T-Mobile has its own slightly different take, with its network-based Live Translation beta officially underway.

In a blog post today (via Droidlife), T-Mobile CTO John Saw announced that the carrier has finally kicked off the Live Translation beta. The feature was announced back in February, and the beta is now live for selected participants, supporting more than 80 languages. The idea is that T-Mobile handles translation through its network rather than having your phone handle it, without you buying any extra hardware or software. T-Mobile says it should work with virtually any phone on its network, from a modern smartphone to an old-school flip phone.

To use it, a T-Mobile customer dials *87* during a call, and the conversation can then be translated in real time. Only one person on the call needs to be a T-Mobile customer, and the provider says the translation can be delivered in your own voice, which sounds both intriguing and slightly Black Mirror.

T-Mobile says the feature is free during the beta for selected participants, though that wording leaves the door open to charging for it later. That’s not to say the utility wouldn’t make it worth charging some amount for, but T-Mobile will be aware that this isn’t your only option for translating a call, which should ideally keep any costs down.

According to T-Mobile, Live Translation is an early example of “network-native AI,” with the more intensive computing work moved off the device and onto the network infrastructure. Practical as it may sound, the privacy question is also bound to be a live one as T-Mobile expands its AI ecosystem.