Sep 29, 2020 14:00:00

YouTube's 'subtitle translation request function to viewers' has ended, and users have voiced opposition

The ability to request translation of subtitles attached to YouTube videos ended on September 28, 2020. YouTube has stated that it was discontinued because it wasn't used much, contrary to expectations, and there were constant reports of spam and harassment, but some users have voiced opposition.

Notice: The YouTube viewer translation request feature will end on September 28, 2020-YouTube Community

https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/61969075?hl=ja

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YouTube provides a subtitle creation tool so that people from different countries can enjoy the movie. To add translated subtitles on YouTube, creators had to manually upload the subtitles , use YouTube's automatic subtitle transcription feature , or ask volunteer viewers to add the translations. Of these, translation requests to volunteer viewers can be submitted by anyone translating the title, description, and subtitles of the video, and will be automatically published after the approval of the creator.

However, as of July 31, 2020, less than 0.001% of the channels published subtitles provided by viewers within a month, and the subtitle display time was less than 0.2% of the total playback time. Turned out. On the other hand, both creators and viewers reported spam, harassment, and low-quality translations with subtitles using the translation request function.

Therefore, it was announced on July 31, 2020 that the translation request function to viewers will end on September 28, 2020 on all channels. After the abolition of the translation request function, the addition of subtitles will be limited to self-made subtitles by creators or the automatic subtitle generation function of YouTube.

However, in response to this YouTube

announcement , 'Since September 2019, the requested subtitles will not be displayed unless approved by the video poster, so it is inevitable that the display rate of the translation request subtitles will decrease.' , Repulsive comments have been received. Even if high-quality subtitles are posted by volunteers, there are more cases where the video poster does not notice the posting of the subtitles and neglects the approval, so the subtitles due to the translation request are displayed. Has also decreased.

Also, in order to translate YouTuber movies that are popular overseas into Japanese, and Vtuber movies that are popular in Japan into English, Chinese, Korean, etc., there is a function to request translation from volunteers. Important to. Since a huge amount of YouTuber and Vtuber movies are posted every day, there is an opinion that subtitle creation has not caught up at all and it is natural that the ratio of subtitle provision will be low.

At the time of writing the article after the scheduled end date of the translation request function, it was still possible to switch on / off the translation request from YouTube Studio to the viewer.

YouTube has not announced an alternative function to the translation request function, and it seems that the difficult situation will continue for those who want to enjoy overseas movies comfortably.