How multilingual are you? Sure, you know the international words, from adios to namaste and zeitgeist, but what do you do when you receive a long message in Spanish, German and Chinese in a group chat on your messaging service? WhatsApp has the answer.
Messages in other languages may also be translated and displayed on WhatsApp soon.
According to a reliable and accurate website, in an ongoing update, WhatsApp will start translating all chat messages. WA Beta InformationThe feature works through language packs, where users are shown a notification saying “Read messages in your preferred language” and have the option to toggle a switch, which will translate all new messages in the selected thread. They can then choose the language in which they want messages rendered in the panel.
Suddenly, if most of the thread is in another language, you no longer need to copy messages into an external translation app to continue reading.
This can be useful in a variety of situations, for example if your local housing association’s WhatsApp group has an international constituent, but messaging is in Spanish.
No more guessing words and linguistic false friends are revealed, i.e. “Me tengo constipado” correctly appears as “I have a cold” instead of what I thought it meant.
WABetaInfo commented: “The ability to instantly translate messages during a conversation helps keep communication flowing, making it easier for users to understand and respond in real time. While the feature is still in development, it seems WhatsApp is working on further enhancing it through a new auto-translation option.”
So far, the feature has been spotted in a beta version of the app for Android devices, but WhatsApp may be working on bringing it to iPhones as well.
Previously, it was reported that the technology was based on Google’s Live Translation technology, but that no longer appears to be the case. “WhatsApp appears to have in fact developed its own in-house technology to support message translation,” the report states. This has major benefits for users, as “this approach maintains end-to-end encryption as it processes messages on the device. Therefore, WhatsApp will need to download some language packs to translate messages.”
This not only makes it more secure but also improves interoperability between iPhone and Android users.
What’s not yet clear is whether only incoming messages will be translated from the original language to the desired language, or if they will also be interpreted backwards when replying.
There are many more.
