How do translate a mobile app?

by Target Language Translation Services

- January 12 2022

The fairly small investment and the potential for immediate global reach is one of the most appealing factors for app development. One of the great things about the international app market is that through platforms like Apple’s App Store and Google Play, app developers and mobile entrepreneurs can access huge numbers of users all over the world. The barrier is, of course, language.

If you’re looking to develop a mobile app for tablets and phones, and your intention is to go beyond your home market, you need to have a translation strategy in place very early on. Remember that 72% of potential users will not be native English speakers.

Most software users and mobile gamers want to use apps in their own language. This is natural. Meanwhile, communication throughout the interface is a key component when using a mobile app. For example, communicating with your users through their native languages will reinforce brand credibility and trust. They will feel like they’re speaking with one of their own. Therefore, app developers need to prepare to translate an app for Android or iPhone at development stage, before they actually start marketing the apps.

Translation Process

App translation can open for developers incredible business opportunities  – and even more so, app localization – but how does it work? Let’s analyze the process, step-by-step.

Market Research

Market research is perhaps the most important step in this process. Before starting out an app localization project, remember that the foundation of intelligent business expansion is in-depth research.

Focus your research on your multilingual international users or international competitors, and find a market that will welcome your mobile app with open arms.

Even in digital industries, geographic closeness has weight. Your neighboring countries are probably culturally close and economically similar. Start your expansion there to build up the processes to facilitate further growth.

Find an Experienced LSP

Finding a Language Services Provider (LSP) is essential to getting a mobile app translation project done in relatively little time, at a reasonable cost, and with positive results.

While large developers with an international outreach can handle translation and localization in-house, it’s not advisable to take the project into your own hands if you’re a small actor.

An experienced agency offering high-quality translation and localization services will diligently help you bridge the linguistic, cultural, and functional gaps in your product to adapt to your target market. By delegating the project to a third party, you spare yourself of the costs of recruiting, training, and managing the project in-house, while guaranteeing a competitive quality baseline.

Project Preparation

Once you know what markets you’ll be targeting, you’ve designed a 360° market plan, and you’ve found the right translation services, and established clear terms for the project, a project manager will request the necessary files to start working.

Your translation team will first extract your app’s translatable strings into a resources file, upon which they will perform the translation.

The project managers in charge of your success will probably request some extra insight on your part, to get a clear idea of how your app works and how your users interact with it, among other factors. The more context the team has, the higher the quality of the translation.

Quality Assurance & Delivery

Once everything has been translated and proofread, a strict quality assurance process takes place. Here, the app’s translated version will be tested through a test environment. The idea is to test the new version on different devices and multiple screen sizes. In this way, you will be able to appreciate the final result and how the design was adapted to the translation. Then, one sees if arrangements or adjustments are necessary, reaching the final version of the app. If everything is flawless, the final version is delivered.

Actionable Tips

Here are nine actionable tips to simplify the translation process.

Set Your Strategy

One of the first steps in app localization is to identify your target market and language. Analyze your existing users to find if there’s any untapped potential. Before you start expanding internationally, ask yourself if there’s a need for your app in the market you’re planning to target.

Ensure your app is localization-friendly beforehand. Separate the source code from the actual content that’s going to be translated later. Prior app internationalization will save you a lot of time and money throughout the project.

Resource Bundles

Isolate all text and messages to translate in resource bundles; these are special files in your app that contain the original text to be translated. All popular web and app development frameworks provide libraries to achieve this from the get-go. For example, if developing for Apple devices, the first step to localize your app is to export the development language or base localization for translation. For Android, you should start creating the locale directories and resource files.

Provide Context

Be sure to provide instructions on the app interface so that the translation agency can understand your message’s context. Take your time to help translators understand what your strings should achieve. Give them access to the UI, provide screenshots, and share your notes. Having context will allow your professional partner to translate the app clearly and accurately.

Localize Visual Content

Some languages require more space and characters for the text, while some even change text direction. That’s why app localization starts with development and design. Your interface should be localization friendly from the visual side as well. Also, if any labels shouldn’t exceed a particular length, you should inform the translators in advance to work around the limitation.

Create a Glossary

If your app uses company-specific terminology, be sure to provide a glossary for the translators. A glossary will help keep the text consistent throughout the app and ensure better user experience.

Language logic

You will face the need to introduce additional logic to cover the grammatical differences of the target languages. Make sure this is correctly implemented in your app and provide instructions and guidelines to your translation partner to apply those rules in the translated version.

Separate Text From Images

If you want the project to run smoothly, you should get rid of text on images. You will save a lot of time and trouble! Instead, use filler images and overlap the text programmatically. Avoiding Images with text in another language shows users that you built the app for them.

Conclusion

Although translating and localizing a mobile app can be challenging, with a professional translation company, you’ll be able to offer a custom made experience to audiences worldwide.

This article is reprinted from bayantech, Language Buro and pangeanic.

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