Heard a voice note, a video or a phone message and can't tell what language they are speaking? Upload the audio and the AI identifies the primary spoken language, gives a confidence score for it, and lists any other languages that appear. It goes past the language name: it suggests the dialect or regional variant (for example Brazilian or European Portuguese, Gulf or Levantine Arabic), marks the moments where a speaker switches from one language to another, and describes accent features that hint at whether the speaker is native or learned the language later. It finishes with practical advice for handling the file, such as which language setting to choose for transcription or translation.
Example result
Input
A 45-second voice message from a family group chat, with one speaker talking quickly and some English words mixed in.
Output
Primary language: Tagalog (Filipino), high confidence. Syllable-timed rhythm, frequent particles such as "naman" and "kasi", and verb affixes typical of Tagalog. Secondary language: English, used in short bursts, a pattern commonly called Taglish. Language switching points: around 0:08 ("sa meeting"), 0:21 and 0:37, mostly for work-related nouns and set phrases. Dialect or regional variant: Manila-area Tagalog; no strong markers of Cebuano or Ilocano. Accent characteristics: English words carry Philippine English vowels and stress. Proficiency indicators: fluent, native-level speech in both codes. Recommendation: transcribe with Filipino selected and English allowed as a secondary language.
Scores
How it works
How Language Detector works
- 01
Add the speech clip
Sign in, upload a recording or capture one in the browser. Clips from messaging apps, social video and voicemail all work if the speech is audible. You can choose the AI model.
- 02
Listen for sound system and rhythm
The AI weighs the inventory of sounds, syllable structure, tone or stress patterns and recognizable words to rank candidate languages rather than guessing from one feature.
- 03
Narrow to a variety and mark switches
Once the language is clear, it looks for regional markers in vowels, consonants and vocabulary, and notes timestamps where the speaker moves into a second language.
- 04
Report with confidence scores
Each detected language gets a confidence score from 0 to 100, followed by notes on accent, apparent fluency and how to process the audio next.
Use cases
Who it is for
Mystery voice messages and videos
A clip from a trip, a stranger's voicemail or a viral video with no captions: find out what language it is so you can pick the right translator.
Transcription and localization teams
Check the language and variant of incoming files before routing them, so a Quebec French interview does not land with a Paris-trained transcriber by mistake.
Researchers working with multilingual speech
Get a quick map of where speakers code-switch in an interview, which makes it easier to plan annotation and decide which segments need a second language expert.
Heritage speakers and family archives
Old cassette recordings of grandparents often mix languages or regional dialects. A report helps you name what you are hearing and find the right person to translate it.
Tips
Get better results
- Give it at least 20 to 30 seconds of continuous speech; single words and greetings are shared across many languages.
- Trim music intros and long silences so the model spends its attention on the voice.
- If two people speak different languages, a clip where they take turns works better than one where they overlap.
- Treat a dialect result with modest confidence as a lead to confirm with a native speaker, not a final label.
Limitations
What it can't tell you
Closely related languages and dialects, such as Serbian and Croatian, Hindi and Urdu in casual speech, or Malay and Indonesian, can sound nearly identical in a short clip, and the confidence scores reflect that. Rare and low-resource languages are harder for any AI model to identify. Accent and proficiency notes describe how the speech sounds; they are not a way to determine someone's nationality, ethnicity or immigration status and should not be used for that.
Frequently Asked Questions
Language Detector questions
How can I find out what language is being spoken in a video?
Save or extract the audio from the video, or record it playing, then upload it. The report names the most likely language with a confidence score and suggests the regional variety. If the video has music over the speech, pick a section where the voice is clearest.
Can it detect more than one language in the same recording?
Yes. The analysis lists secondary languages with their own confidence scores and marks approximate switching points. This is useful for bilingual conversations, code-switching speakers, and interviews where an interpreter speaks between answers.
Does it translate the audio?
No, it identifies the language rather than translating it. Once you know the language, use a transcription tool with that language selected, then translate the text. The speech recognition tool in the same app can produce the transcript.
How short can the clip be?
The AI can attempt a guess on a few seconds, but short clips produce low confidence, especially for related languages. Twenty seconds or more of steady speech gives the model enough rhythm, sounds and vocabulary to separate close candidates like Spanish and Portuguese.
Is this the same as a text language identifier?
No. Text detectors look at spelling and characters. This tool works from sound, so it can identify a language even when you have no way to type what you heard, and it can pick up dialect and accent features that text never shows.
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English Pronunciation Checker
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Audio Summarizer
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Language Detector uses credits from a paid LindaleAI plan. See pricing