Code switching

Code switching handles conversations where speakers switch languages mid-utterance or across turns. Gladia can detect and transcribe the active language dynamically, and annotate results with the detected languages code.

For best accuracy and latency, provide a small set of expected languages. Avoid listing dozens of similar languages.

How to use code switching ?

Enable code switching in the session configuration:

{
  "encoding": "wav/pcm",
  "sample_rate": 16000,
  "bit_depth": 16,
  "channels": 1,
  "language_config": {
    "languages": ["en", "de", "fr"],
    "code_switching": true
  }
}

When enabled, transcript messages include the detected language per utterance and per word. Use the transcript message schema for details.

Do not enable code_switching with an empty languages list. When no languages are specified, the language detector evaluates every utterance against 100+ supported languages, leading to frequent misdetections - especially between similar-sounding languages.

Recommendations

Limit the number of languages to those you expect.
Combine with custom vocabulary per language for domain terms.

Automatic language detection

Supported languages

⌘I

​How to use code switching ?

​Recommendations

How to use code switching ?

Recommendations