Live captions, 60-language translation, and AI voice for any Google Meet call — one Chrome extension, works on any Google Workspace plan.
Google Meet has live captions, and Google has been rolling out translated captions in specific Google Workspace tiers. But the coverage is uneven: translated captions are bundled with Business Standard and above, they support a narrower language set than Gaavala, and crucially they are only one-way — participants can read captions in another language, but they cannot respond in another language through the meeting's own audio.
Gaavala works at a different layer. Because Google Meet runs natively in a Chrome tab, it is the smoothest platform to use with the Gaavala extension. You join your Meet call at meet.google.com, click the Gaavala icon, pick your source and target languages, and press Start — capture begins instantly with no screen-share dialog, and live captions appear in the side panel and floating overlay across all 60 Soniox-supported languages. No Workspace plan is required — Gaavala works equally well on a personal Gmail Meet call, a Workspace Business Standard call, or a guest-access call where you are not even signed in to a Google account.
The audio stream flows directly from your browser to the Soniox speech-to-text engine over an encrypted WebSocket. No audio ever touches Gaavala's backend, and AI summaries are generated on-device — transcripts never leave your machine. This matters for education and nonprofit contexts — schools running multilingual parent-teacher conferences, international NGOs hosting cross-border discussions — where sending student or beneficiary audio through a third-party cloud would trigger compliance reviews that may not be worth the effort.
On Pro ($24.99/month, one-time 5-minute free trial available), Speak Mode lets you do what Meet's built-in captions cannot: speak in your native language and have Gaavala synthesize your translated voice directly into the Meet audio so participants hear you in their language. Push-to-Talk keeps you in control of what gets translated; Timed Speak goes hands-free. Soniox studio voices (28 voices, all 60 languages) are the Pro default, or clone your own voice from a ~20-second sample.
| Feature | Google Meet built-in | Gaavala |
|---|---|---|
| Live translation | Gated by enterprise SKU or license | Included on Free and Pro |
| Language coverage | Platform-dependent, narrower set | 60 languages across every plan |
| Privacy | Audio proxied through vendor cloud | Direct browser-to-Soniox streaming |
| Setup | Admin or tenant-level enablement | Chrome Web Store install, 30 seconds |
| Cross-platform | Google Meet only | Teams, Zoom, Meet, Webex |
| AI voice Speak Mode | Limited or unavailable | Pro includes PTT + Timed Speak |
Teachers running Google Meet classes with non-native-English students can enable real-time translation for everyone — no per-seat licensing or admin intervention.
Cross-border nonprofit teams coordinating programs across languages get Soniox-grade accuracy without sending audio to a third-party proxy.
Schools hosting virtual parent-teacher meetings with families who speak different languages can use Gaavala to include every parent without asking them to install anything.
Freelancers meeting with international clients on Meet get live captions plus Speak Mode on Pro — allowing them to respond professionally in the client's language.
No. Gaavala is a Chrome extension for desktop Chromium browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc, Opera — Chromium 114+). Mobile Chrome does not support the extension system that Gaavala relies on, including the tabCapture API. To use Gaavala during a Meet call, join the meeting from a desktop or laptop browser.
No. Gaavala works with any Google Meet call regardless of the host's plan. You can use it on a free personal Gmail Meet link, a Business Standard meeting, an Enterprise call, or even as an unauthenticated guest joining a meeting with just a link. Gaavala does not integrate with your Google account for Meet — it only uses the Chrome tab where Meet is running.
Gaavala is designed for live, real-time transcription. If you play back a recorded Meet session in a Chrome tab, Gaavala can capture the playback audio the same way it captures live meetings — but it will not work inside Google Drive's video player if the player enforces DRM on the audio track. For most standard Meet recordings this is not an issue.
No. Gaavala runs entirely in your own browser and uses the Chrome tabCapture API, which does not signal anything back to Google Meet. Other participants see a normal Meet call with normal captions if they have them enabled themselves. Gaavala does not post messages to the Meet chat, does not create a bot participant, and does not announce itself.
Speak Mode is a Pro-only feature ($24.99/month). The free tier (one-time 5-minute trial, no credit card, never resets) does not include Speak Mode. You hold a Push-to-Talk key and speak in your native language. Gaavala transcribes your voice, translates it, synthesizes a voice in the target language using Soniox studio voices (the Pro default — 28 voices across all 60 languages) or a clone of your own voice, and plays the synthesized audio into the Meet call so other participants hear you in their language. Timed Speak is a hands-free alternative to PTT for conversational back-and-forth.
How to translate a Google Meet call in real time
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