The First Google Pixel Buds and Their Live Translation Feature

Originally published 2017-10-11.

The first Google Pixel Buds were wireless earbuds announced on 4 October 2017 for $159, and their headline feature was live translation between 40 languages using Google Translate. You held the right earbud, asked Google Assistant to help you speak a language, and the system translated your words aloud through your phone while playing the other person's replies in your ear. It was an exciting demo, but in practice the translation ran on the phone, worked best with Google's own Pixel handsets, and was far from flawless.

Here is how the original Pixel Buds worked, what reviewers found, how they compared with rivals, and what happened to the idea of a pocket interpreter afterwards.

The launch: a hardware event in San Francisco

Google introduced the Pixel Buds at its annual hardware event in San Francisco on 4 October 2017, alongside the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL phones and new Google Home speakers. Pre-orders opened the same day. The earbuds went on sale in the United States and Canada in November 2017, with the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia following, in three colours Google called Just Black, Clearly White and Kinda Blue.

Unlike Apple's AirPods, the two buds were joined by a fabric cord, and the right earbud carried a touch panel for controlling music and summoning Google Assistant. They came in a fabric-covered charging case that Google said provided about 24 hours of extra listening time.

How the 40-language translation worked

The translation trick that grabbed headlines relied on three pieces working together: the earbuds, a compatible phone and the Google Translate app.

1. You pressed and held the right earbud and said something like "Help me speak Japanese."
2. Google Assistant opened Google Translate on the paired phone.
3. When you spoke, the earbuds' microphone captured your words, the phone translated them, and the phone's loudspeaker read the translation aloud to the other person.
4. When the other person replied into the phone, the translation was played back into your ears.

At launch the feature supported 40 languages. Google said it was designed for the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, and 9to5Google reported that the original Pixel phones were supported too, while other Android phones and iPhones could use the buds as ordinary Bluetooth headphones with Assistant.

The Babel fish comparison

Many early reports compared the Pixel Buds to the Babel fish from Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a small yellow creature that, once placed in the ear, lets the wearer understand any language instantly. The comparison was irresistible, but it overstated what the product did.

The Babel fish works silently and invisibly inside one person's head. The Pixel Buds required both people to take turns, the phone to sit between them, and a data connection for Google Translate. Conversations had a noticeable stop-start rhythm rather than the seamless flow of science fiction.

What reviewers actually found

When the Pixel Buds reached reviewers, the response was mostly negative. Critics disliked the fiddly case, which required the cord to be wound around it before the buds would seat properly.

The translation feature drew mixed reactions. It worked, but many testers pointed out that the earbuds were mainly acting as a microphone and speaker while the phone did the real work. Wired's James Temperton went as far as calling the feature "a bit of a con." Accuracy depended heavily on background noise, accents and how simply people phrased their sentences, so it was handy for directions or ordering food but not for nuanced conversation.

It is worth correcting one common claim from 2017: the Pixel Buds were not more accurate than other translation tools. They used the same Google Translate engine available in the free app, with the same strengths and weaknesses.

Rivals and what came next

Google was not the first company to chase spoken translation. Microsoft had already added live speech translation to Skype, and the start-up Waverly Labs had attracted attention with its Pilot translating earpieces. Google's advantages were scale, the maturity of Google Translate and a relatively low price.

In 2018 Google quietly widened access, saying the conversation feature would work with any headphones optimised for Google Assistant and on Android phones generally. That move confirmed what critics had said: the magic lived in the software, not the earbuds.

The first-generation Pixel Buds were removed from the Google Store after a redesigned, truly wireless second generation was announced in October 2019. Later models followed, including the cheaper Pixel Buds A-Series in 2021, the noise-cancelling Pixel Buds Pro in 2022 and the Pixel Buds Pro 2 in 2024, with real-time translation through Google Translate remaining part of the line's appeal.

Using earbud translation sensibly today

Live translation in headphones and phones has improved a great deal since 2017, but the basic advice from the Pixel Buds era still applies:

• Keep sentences short and clear. Simple wording translates far more reliably than idioms or jokes.
• Reduce background noise. Step away from traffic or music before speaking.
• Check the connection. Many features still need mobile data; download offline language packs where available before you travel.
• Do not rely on it for high-stakes matters. For medical, legal or official conversations, a qualified human interpreter is the safer choice.
• Be patient and polite. Let the other person know you are using a translator so they can speak slowly too.

The original Pixel Buds did not change the world overnight, and their hardware was quickly forgotten. Their real legacy was showing millions of people that a conversation across a language barrier could start with a tap on the ear, an idea that has since become an ordinary feature of phones and earbuds.

Sources: Wikipedia: Pixel Buds; 9to5Google: Pixel Buds translation also works on the original Pixel (October 2017); GSMArena: Google enters the wireless headphone space with the Pixel Buds.