Microsoft has been testing a translator program intended for use in Skype for six months now, with great success so far. They are now announcing that the translator will be bundled within the Skype for desktop PC application sometime this summer. Previously, you needed to be invited into the testing program, but Microsoft removed the sign-up requirement last month.
Skype Translator currently supports Spanish, Italian, Mandarin and English for near-real time translations of spoken conversations. It also supports over 50 other languages for written instant messaging.
At the moment, the translator app is still in "preview" status, but anyone who wishes to try it can download the app from the Windows Store with no sign-up necessary. For now, it is limited to PC's and tablets running Windows 8.1 or the preview edition of Windows 10.
It is possible that with the upcoming release of Windows 10, Microsoft intends to combine the Windows PC and tablet versions of Skype into a single program. A new version of Skype has been released to Microsoft's partners, so it is possible that we will see a single app across all versions of Windows 10, but there is no definite date set for this new version release.
You can find the download for Skype Translator at the Windows Store, or at this link.
