I recently built a browser extension that I use every single day
The motivation was pretty simple.
I spend a lot of time on YouTube watching AI, tech, and product-related content - podcasts, interviews, long-form tutorials.
And the more I watched, the more I noticed how much language itself became a hidden friction.
The real pain points (at least for me)
- Native speakers talk fast - if I lose focus for a moment, I’m lost
- Constantly pausing to look up words breaks the flow
- Some videos are extremely information-dense, but the cost of “fully understanding” them is high
- When someone explains something really well, I want to copy the exact phrasing - but subtitles aren’t easily reusable
None of these are deal-breakers on their own.
But together, they make you hesitate before clicking on an otherwise great video.
So I decided to build something for myself
I built a browser extension called VidPilot.
The goal is intentionally narrow:
Not to be a “do-everything AI tool”, but simply to make watching YouTube videos in another language feel lighter.
What it currently does
1. Real-time bilingual (and multilingual) subtitles
When you open a YouTube video, subtitles automatically show in two languages.
Fast speech becomes much easier to follow, and you can translate subtitles into multiple languages - not just English ↔ Chinese.
2. AI voice dubbing with natural-sounding voices
This is the feature I personally use the most.
- AI-generated voices, but designed to sound natural
- Multiple voice options
- Roughly synced with the original video
- You can listen to the original audio + dubbed voice together
It almost feels like listening to a “native-language version” of a podcast.
3. Copyable & downloadable subtitles
When you hear a great explanation or phrasing:
- Copy it directly
- Use it for notes
- Language learning
- Or content creation
Surprisingly useful if you learn or build in public.
Who it’s probably for
- People watching AI / tech / product content in another language
- Long-form podcasts, interviews, tutorials
- Anyone who wants YouTube to feel less mentally taxing
- Or just wants a bit less “language anxiety”
The biggest change for me
Before, I often thought:
“This video looks great… but I’m not sure I have the energy to watch it.”
Now it’s more like:
“Let’s just click it. It’s fine.”
That alone made it worth building.
VidPilot is still very much a work in progress.
The feature set is small on purpose — I just want to make understanding videos smoother.
If foreign-language YouTube content has ever felt like unnecessary friction,
this might be useful to you too.
The line about “hesitating before clicking” really landed for me. That’s such a real form of friction, and it’s usually invisible until someone names it.
I’m curious how you think about trust with the dubbing feature — not accuracy in a strict sense, but confidence. Do you find people are okay with slightly imperfect sync/phrasing as long as the cognitive load drops? Or do small mismatches break immersion quickly?
Feels like one of those tools where the success metric isn’t features, but how often someone stops thinking about the tool at all.
Thank you for your reply. This is how I understand trust in this context:
During translation, some level of hallucination is unavoidable with AI, but it also comes with clear advantages. AI can fully leverage context when translating, rather than translating sentence by sentence in isolation. Throughout the translation process, prompt design and schemas are used to control and improve translation quality.
For dubbing, the goal is to make the synthesized voice as close as possible to the original speaker’s timbre in the future, so the difference doesn’t feel too jarring.
As for synchronization, because different languages naturally vary in speech length, VidPilot includes a built-in synchronization engine that dynamically adjusts dubbing timing and playback speed to stay as closely aligned as possible with the original video. This is, of course, an area we’ll continue to refine and improve over time.
Thanks again for the thoughtful discussion.