You can speak in German and the Skype will translate it to English or vice versa. (Unless you are using Skype in French, in which it will surrender. Ed)

Microsoft demonstrated this capability with Chinese to English translation in late 2012 and the same software is now coming to Skype. Now Microsoft is ready to let some people try the early beta and you can register to Skype Translator Preview program.

Microsoft has notified us that the devices running Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Technical preview will be the first to get the translator preview and they will be limited to a few languages. Skype translator preview speaks a few languages but the company didn’t reveal the exact list.

When you get the use the translator tool our conversation will be translated in real-time and it will be translated in your headphones or on the screen. There will be a support for 40+ languages for instant messaging, but much less for spoken ones.

The technology looks interesting and some of you might tried a Google translate that has a similar functionality and works quite well. We are sure that being able to translate English or German to Chinese or Spanish will cover a lot of business needs, but we don’t expect spot on accuracy at this early stage.