UVT Help

Get started

You need three things: the Chrome browser, the UVT extension, and an API key from Google (free to create).

1. Install UVT from the Chrome Web Store.
2. Pin it so it is easy to find. Click the puzzle piece at the top right of Chrome, then click the pin next to UVT.
3. Get a Google Gemini API key. See how to get a Gemini key.
4. Click the UVT icon. The side panel opens with a short setup guide. Paste your key there.
5. Read the short notice about privacy and press the button to agree. It explains that your audio goes to Google (or OpenAI) for translation.
6. Open the tab with your call or video.
7. Click the UVT icon while that tab is open. You can also press Alt+Shift+U.
8. Pick a mode: Both ways, Listen or Speak.
9. Pick your languages.
10. Press Start. Press Stop when you are done.

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Get a Google Gemini API key

Gemini is the default translation engine. It speaks more than 70 languages, including Persian. An API key is like a password that lets UVT use Gemini on your account.

1. Go to aistudio.google.com/apikey.
2. Sign in with your Google account.
3. Press Create API key. Follow the steps on the screen.
4. Copy the key. It is a long line of letters and numbers.
5. In UVT, open the setup guide (or Settings) and paste the key.
6. Press the test button. If it says it works, you are ready.

Free or paid?

Google AI Studio has a free tier for many models. Whether the free tier includes the translation model UVT uses, and how much you can use it, can change at any time. Check Google's pricing page.

Please know: on the free tier, Google may use what you send to improve its products. On the paid tier, the rules are different. Read Google's Gemini API terms to decide what is right for you. For private calls, the paid tier may be the better choice.

See What it costs for paid prices.

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Get an OpenAI API key (optional)

You do not need OpenAI. Gemini works on its own. Some people like OpenAI's voice. You can pick an engine for each direction: one for what you say, one for what you hear.

Important: OpenAI can only speak 13 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Indonesian and Vietnamese. It cannot speak Persian. It can understand many more languages.

1. Go to platform.openai.com/api-keys and sign in.
2. Add billing credit to your OpenAI account. The key will not work without it.
3. Press Create new secret key and copy it.
4. In UVT, open Settings → Translation engine. Paste the key.
5. Choose which direction should use OpenAI.
6. Press the test button to check it.

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The three modes

You can switch modes in the side panel. Switching while it runs restarts the translation.

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Both ways

Use this for a real two-way talk. UVT translates what you say and sends it into the call in place of your normal microphone. It also translates what the others say, so you hear it in your language.

1. Allow UVT on the call site once. See Allow UVT on a call site.
2. Open the call page and reload the tab. Do not join yet.
3. Click the UVT icon on that tab.
4. Choose Both ways. Set I speak and They speak.
5. Press Start translating.
6. Join the call. Turn on your mic in the call app as usual.

Handy buttons during a call

• Mute me: nothing you say is sent.
• Speak without translation: your real voice goes to the call, untranslated. Useful for a name, or if you switch to their language.
• Original sound: how loud the real voices play under the translation.

UVT follows the call app's mute button. If you mute yourself in the call, UVT does not send your voice. When you press Stop, your normal microphone comes back.

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Listen

Use this when you only want to understand. Your microphone is never used. Nothing is sent into a call. You do not need to allow UVT on the site.

1. Open the video, talk or call in a tab.
2. Click the UVT icon on that tab.
3. Choose Listen. Pick the language you want to hear.
4. Press Start listening, then play the video.

Any language in the tab is translated into the language you picked.

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Speak

Use this when you understand the other people but want to talk in your own language. Only your voice is translated. You hear the call as normal.

1. Allow UVT on the call site once. See Allow UVT on a call site.
2. Reload the call tab before you join.
3. Click the UVT icon on that tab.
4. Choose Speak. Pick the language you speak and the language they should hear.
5. Press Start speaking, then join the call.

Wear headphones in this mode, if you can. See Headphones or speakers.

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Allow UVT on a call site

To put your translated voice into a call, UVT needs permission to work on that website. You only do this once per site. Listen mode does not need it.

1. Open the call website (for example Google Meet) in a tab.
2. Click the UVT icon on that tab.
3. Press Allow UVT on this site.
4. Chrome asks you. Choose Allow.
5. Reload the tab before you join the call.

Allow all your call apps at once

The setup guide has a button called Allow my call apps. It asks Chrome once for the well-known call sites, like Google Meet, Zoom (web), Microsoft Teams (web), Slack, Discord, WhatsApp Web, Webex, Jitsi, Whereby, Messenger, Telegram Web, Google Voice and Gather.

In Settings → Sites you can also choose Allow on all websites, or remove sites you allowed.

Is this safe?

• Nothing is added to any page when you install UVT.
• On sites you allow, UVT stays inactive until you press Start.
• When you press Stop, your real microphone comes back.

Why reload the tab?

Call apps pick up your microphone when the page loads. UVT has to be ready before that happens. Reloading the page lets UVT get ready first. If you already joined the call, leave, reload the tab, and join again.

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Why you click the UVT icon on the tab

Chrome protects you. An extension can only hear a tab's sound if you click the extension's icon while that tab is open. This way, no extension can secretly listen to your tabs.

1. Go to the tab you want to translate.
2. Click the UVT icon in the toolbar, or press Alt+Shift+U.
3. Press Start in the side panel.

If you see "One more click needed", do these steps again on the right tab.

Some pages can never be translated: Chrome's own pages (like chrome://settings), the Chrome Web Store, and files on your computer.

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Microphone

UVT needs your microphone only for Both ways and Speak. Listen never uses it.

1. In the setup guide, press Allow microphone.
2. A new tab opens. Press Allow microphone there.
3. Chrome asks you. Choose Allow.
4. Go back to the UVT side panel.

If it is blocked

1. Open chrome://settings/content/microphone in a new tab.
2. Find UVT in the "Not allowed" list and change it to Allow.
3. Press Start again.

To use a different microphone, open Settings → Sound and choose it.

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Headphones or speakers

Headphones work best. With headphones, you and the others can talk at the same time, like a normal call.

With speakers, your microphone could pick up the translation and send it back into the call. To stop that, UVT pauses your microphone while the call or the translation is playing. So wait a moment before you talk.

1. Open Settings → Sound.
2. Turn on I use headphones if you wear them. Leave it off for speakers.
3. The change applies the next time you press Start.

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Speech speed

Translation is a little behind the speaker. If it falls behind, make the translated voice faster. The voice keeps its normal pitch.

• Choose a speed from 1× (normal) to 2× (twice as fast).
• In the side panel, press [ for slower and ] for faster.
• Always this speed: every word plays at your speed.
• Only when I fall behind: normal speed most of the time, faster only when the translation lags.

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Subtitles

The side panel shows live subtitles: the translation, and (if you turn it on) the original words.

• Turn on Show original text in the ⋯ menu to see what was said.
• To save them, choose Export subtitles in the ⋯ menu. A text file is made on your computer.
• To remove them, choose Clear subtitles.
• Subtitles are deleted when you close the browser, unless you export them.

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What it costs

UVT is free. The translation service charges you for the audio it translates. You pay Google or OpenAI directly, not UVT.

• Prices are from November 2026 and can change. Always check Google's pricing and OpenAI's pricing.
• Both ways translates two directions (you and them), so it can cost about twice as much as Listen or Speak.
• Google AI Studio has a free tier for many models. It may or may not cover this model, and its limits change. See Free or paid?
• Press Stop when you are done, so you are not charged for silence or music.
• You can set spending limits or alerts in your Google or OpenAI account.

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Privacy in short

• UVT has no servers. No analytics, no tracking, no ads. The developer collects nothing.
• Audio is sent only while translation runs, straight from your browser to Google or OpenAI (the engine you picked).
• Your API key is saved only in your browser.
• Subtitles stay on your computer and are deleted when you close the browser, unless you export them.
• Tell the people in your call that an AI service translates what they say. In some places, the law requires it.

Read the full privacy policy.

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Languages

• Google Gemini can translate into more than 70 languages, including Persian.
• OpenAI can speak 13 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Indonesian and Vietnamese. It understands many more.
• You can use a different engine for each direction. Example: OpenAI for what you say in English, and Gemini for what you hear in Persian.
• In Both ways mode, UVT notices by itself who speaks which language.
• The UVT interface is in English and Persian (فارسی). Change it in Settings → General → Interface language.

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Desktop apps (Zoom, Teams, WhatsApp)

UVT lives inside Chrome. Desktop apps, like the Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp or Slack apps, run outside Chrome. No Chrome extension can hear them or speak into them.

What to do: join the call in Chrome instead.

• Zoom: open the meeting link and choose "Join from your browser".
• Microsoft Teams: choose "Continue on this browser".
• WhatsApp: use WhatsApp Web in Chrome.

Installed web apps (opened from Chrome) can work. Open UVT from a normal Chrome window and choose the app's tab.

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Troubleshooting

UVT shows a message when something goes wrong, often with a button that fixes it. Here is what each problem means.

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Questions and answers

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