Google Meet can now translate speech between 63 languages, and Swahili is one of them. Google announced the expansion on Thursday 22nd October 2026. Speech translation is the Meet feature that plays you what other people are saying in your language, as they say it. Until now it worked only between English and five other languages: Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and Italian. The question for Kenyan users is whether they can use it, and that depends on who is paying for the meeting.
The way it works has changed too. Before, someone had to set one language pair for the whole meeting. Now each person switches translation on for themselves from a translation control in the Meet toolbar, picks the language they want to hear, and can list languages they already understand so those are left alone. Meet works out which language each speaker is using, even when a speaker switches halfway, and plays the translation in your language a few seconds behind them, with captions that match the audio. So a meeting where one person speaks Swahili and another speaks Japanese no longer needs anyone to configure it for the room, and each person just hears their own language.
Google says the feature runs on Gemini 3.5 Live Translate, its audio translation model. We covered the same model in the Google Translate app in September, where Swahili is also supported.
Meet can also translate your own voice for the others. Google’s help page says it speaks your words “in a voice like yours”, but only if you choose “Translate me”, and the people listening have to switch translation on themselves too. Google says it doesn’t save any audio or train models on your voice.
Swahili and the rest of the list
Google’s list of the 63 languages includes Swahili. Besides Arabic, the African languages on it are Afrikaans, Amharic and Swahili. Kikuyu, Luo, Kalenjin, Yoruba, Hausa and Zulu are not there. Swahili has been in Meet’s translated captions, the written version, since June 2024. Now you can hear it too.
Google doesn’t explain one gap. When it introduced Gemini 3.5 Live Translate in June, it said the model detects more than 70 languages and that Meet would offer 70 or more. Meet launched with 63, and Google hasn’t said why.
The help page also warns that real-time translation makes more mistakes than translating a recording. You can expect grammar errors, words that come out unintelligible, unexpected accents, wrong noun gender and a translated voice that changes style when different people speak. Google gives no accuracy figure for any language, Swahili included. So use it to follow a conversation, and don’t treat it as a record of what was said.
Who can use it
Speech translation isn’t free. Consumers need Google AI Pro or Ultra. On Google’s Kenyan page, AI Pro costs KES 3,700 a month, about USD 28.50 at KES 129.87 to the dollar on 22nd October 2026, and Ultra costs KES 12,500 or KES 37,000, depending on the usage tier, as we set out when Gemini 4 Argon reached Kenya. Companies need Google Workspace Business Standard or Plus, Enterprise Standard or Plus, or Frontline Plus, and schools need Google AI Pro for Education. Two add-ons for Workspace, AI Expanded Access and AI Ultra Access, also qualify.
Only the host needs the plan. In a scheduled meeting, everyone who joins can use translation if the organiser has an eligible plan, including guests from other organisations. In a one-to-one call, it works for both people if either has one. So a Kenyan on a free Google account can use it in a meeting hosted by someone who pays.
The plan also sets the length. AI Pro, AI Pro for Education and the base Workspace plans get 90 minutes a meeting. Google AI Ultra, AI Expanded Access and AI Ultra Access get eight hours.
It does not work in live streams, meeting recordings, meetings with client-side encryption, dial-in calls, third-party interoperability calls, where another service’s meeting is linked into Meet, or when Meet’s adaptive audio is on. In a conference room with Google Meet hardware, people in the room hear translations of remote participants, but what they say in the room is not translated for others. Participants under 18 are not translated.
When it arrives
Google started the rollout on 22nd October for companies on its Rapid Release track, the setting that gives a company’s admins new features first, with 1 to 3 days for it to show up. Companies on the Scheduled Release track get it from 2nd November, over up to 15 days. Phone users need to update the Meet app. Translation is on by default for admins at eligible Workspace companies, who can turn it off, and off by default for each person at the start of a meeting.
Google says availability is “subject to regional and age restrictions” and lists no regions. AI Pro is sold in Kenya, but nothing in Google’s announcement or help page says speech translation is live here yet, so test it in a meeting before you rely on it.
If you run meetings with people who don’t share your language, the cost is one paid seat held by whoever hosts: KES 3,700 a month for AI Pro, with a 90-minute cap on each meeting.
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