Yesterday, the President may have received a temporary setback for his support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, but there is no doubt that international trade received a major boost yesterday with the public release of a preview version of Skype Translator. The science-fiction-like feature enables “cross-language” communication for video, voice or text messaging. In other words, every small business (or individual) using Skype Translator now has the ability to converse—real-time—with suppliers, vendors, employees, customers, etc., across what used to be called “language barriers.”

The preview version of Skype Translator is for Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 on a PC or Tablet with no pre-registration or invitation required.

Last September, we were so eager to start using Skype Translator, we shared some gap-filling substitutes. However, there really is no substitute for the science-fiction tool that provides real-time, spoken translation for voice, video or text messaging. While still being described as a “preview application,” you can download it from the Windows Store.

The preview version supports translation across these four languages: English, Spanish, Italian and Mandarin. More languages will be coming soon, says Skype.

Here is a video from our previous post that shows a demo of the remarkable feature:

(Images: Skype)