How to Turn Off Auto Dubbed in YouTube Mobile & Keep Original Creators Audio as Default

You might have noticed YouTube's auto-dubbing feature if you are a frequent YouTube user. This feature represents a significant AI technological advancement designed to expand the global reach. This is really good for video creators like me. In short, this functionality automatically translates and re-records the audio of videos into various languages using Google AI. This enables creators' content to be accessible to all international audiences.  For example, a video originally in English might be automatically dubbed into Spanish or Hindi, allowing non-English speakers to consume the content in their native tongue. YouTube is leveraging artificial intelligence to generate these translated audio tracks. This will effectively bridge language barriers for viewers worldwide.

Despite its intended benefits, many users like want to listen to the original creator's audio. My primary motivation for disabling auto-dubbing is for authenticity & preference to listen original vocal expression of creators. I'm often dissatisfied with the quality of the automated dubbing. Many people like me want to keep Original Creators Audio as the default. Because, as of now, YouTube's default behavior is to automatically apply dubbed audio according to your language preference based on your watch history or geographic location settings within your account.  In this article, I'll cover how you can get rid of this issue.

Disabling  Auto-Dubbing Video on YouTube Mobile

Currently, individuals consuming content on the YouTube mobile only have direct control over auto-dubbing, limited to individual video playback. There is no universal setting within the mobile app or within the desktop to globally disable auto-dubbing or to restore the original creator's audio as a default for all videos. I personally got frustrated with the feature while watching some Hindi podcasts, which get automatically played in my native language Marathi.  So here are a couple of workarounds for this issue.

Workaround Solution: Changing Audio Track During Playback

While watching a video that offers multiple audio tracks, including dubbed versions, you can manually switch to the original language during playback.  This is the most direct and immediate method available on the YouTube mobile app for managing audio preferences on a per-video basis. The process to switch to the original audio for a specific video is very straightforward:

Step 1:  Open the YouTube app and begin playing the desired video, which is getting auto-dubbed by default.

Step 2:  Tap anywhere on the video player. & Locate and tap the Settings gear icon (⚙). [This icon is typically found in the top right corner of the video player interface.]

Step 3: Select "Audio track".

Note: if the "Audio track" option is not visible after tapping the settings gear, it indicates that the specific video does not have multiple audio languages uploaded by the creator. In such instances, the video only possesses its single primary audio track,

Step 4: Then choose the desired audio language. Select the option explicitly labeled "Original" or the original language (e.g., "Hindi(Original)").

Step 5:  The video's audio will instantly switch to the selected track. The change is immediate, allowing for seamless viewing in your preferred language.

As many people are getting frustrated with this auto-dubbing. I'm expecting that in upcoming version updates, YouTube will include a universal setting option to disable auto-dubbing for all videos or to set "original audio" as a global default for future playback.

If you are on a desktop, then you can use browser extensions, such as "YouTube Original Audio Track,". This will help you to automatically set the video audio to the original language . [Please install this extension from the official Chrome store for better security & privacy ]

Conclusion:

Using the above method only you can turn off auto dubbed in YouTube mobile app. People like me are demanding a permanent "off" switch for auto-dubbing. I hope we can see some significant UI improvement from Google, as this stupid auto-translation is not going to help everyone.

I suggest that if you are also one of these people, then you can submit your feedback from the Play Store or App Store to implement the Universal OFF button for the Auto-dubbed version.  If you have any queries, feel free to ask me in our comments.  I'll update this post when Google includes the required option.