Most of the internet's video isn't in your language. A cooking channel from Turkey, a lecture from a German university, a Korean drama that won't get an English release for a year, an anime episode that came out last night. There are a few ways to watch these today, and each one fails in a different place.

1. Subtitles from the uploader

The best case. If the uploader added real captions in your language, use them. On YouTube, open the settings gear, pick Subtitles/CC and check the list. The catch: most videos have none, or only the original language.

2. YouTube's auto-translate

If a video has captions in any language, YouTube can machine-translate them: Settings → Subtitles/CC → Auto-translate. It's free and instant. The catch: it needs captions to exist in the first place, the translation is word by word, and you still have to read the whole time. That's fine for a 3-minute clip, tiring for a 40-minute lecture, and impossible while cooking or driving.

3. Platform audio tracks

Some YouTube channels and streaming services ship extra audio languages. When your language is there, it's the most comfortable option. When it isn't, there's nothing to switch to, and smaller languages rarely get one.

4. Voice-over in the browser

This is the gap we built Vocnu for. It's a browser extension for Chrome, Brave and Edge: you turn it on in a tab, and an AI voice reads the translation in your language over the lowered original sound, with subtitles on top. You still hear the real voices and the music underneath, the way TV voice-over works in much of Eastern Europe.

It works on YouTube (with or without captions), Netflix, Twitch, Vimeo, Bilibili and most pages with a video player, in 38 languages. For a recorded video it prepares the voice a little ahead of the picture, so playback waits about half a minute at the start and then runs normally, following pauses, seeking and speed changes. Live streams are voiced a few seconds behind.

A few practical notes:

  • It's paid per minute in credits, and new accounts get 40 free credits, about 20 minutes of the best voice or 80 minutes of the cheapest.

  • A video that's already in your language is never charged, and rewatching the same video in the same language within 90 days is free.

  • It runs on a computer only. No phones, Firefox or Safari yet.

Step-by-step guides:

Which one to use

Short clip with captions: auto-translate is enough. Long lecture, a series, or anything you watch while doing something else: listening beats reading, so use an audio track if one exists, and voice-over when it doesn't.

You can try Vocnu at vocnu.com.