Microsoft today expanded the beta of Skype Translator, the real-time translation service demonstrated last fall, to all interested testers.
Previously, the app had been available to a smaller invite-only audience.
Skype Translator translates both sides of a video chat conversation to and from English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Mandarin. It also translates text chat content in another 44 languages, including Arabic, Dutch, Japanese, Russian and Swedish.
"Today, we're excited to announce that we're making it easier to obtain the Skype Translator preview by removing the sign-up requirement," Yasmin Khan, of the Skype marketing team, said in a blog post.
The Skype Translator beta runs on Windows 8.1 and the Windows 10 Technical Preview. Microsoft has yet to peg a delivery date for the release version, and has not said which languages the service will ultimately support. However, the Redmond, Wash. company has set a goal of doing real-time translations of nearly three dozen spoken languages.
The 14MB Skype Translator app can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store.