WhatsApp is rolling out the ability for users to translate messages into their preferred language, the meta-owned company announced Tuesday.
Now, if the user sees a message in a different language, you can hold down and tap “Translation.” Users can then select the language they want to translate and download it for future use. WhatsApp points out that message translations are available for one-to-one chat, group and channel updates.
Android users have the option to turn on automatic translation for the entire chat thread, and all future incoming messages for that conversation have been translated.
The company points out that translations occur on devices of users who cannot view WhatsApp. This means that the message remains encrypted.
“With over 3 billion users in over 180 countries, we are working to keep our users connected at all times, wherever we are in the world,” WhatsApp wrote in a blog post. “But we understand that language can be a barrier to getting things done or really expressing feelings. So we are excited to bring translations of our messages to WhatsApp, so it’s easier to communicate between languages.”
The move comes months after Apple began live translation with messages.
Message translations have been rolling out to Android and iPhone users starting Tuesday.
Android users can access translations in six languages: English, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian and Arabic. iPhone users can do so in Arabic, Dutch, English, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese.
It’s not known if WhatsApp is planning to provide message translations to the web or Windows and Mac apps.
