Geographical barriers are becoming less and less of an obstacle for business in today’s globalized world, particularly when it comes to digital goods like websites, mobile applications, and other kinds of software. The localization process is a crucial component of expanding your product line into new markets.
The process of modifying an app’s functionality and interface so that it may run in a language other than the default one is known as mobile app localization.
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As a result, it appeals to a wider range of target audiences and offers users from various cultural backgrounds and nations a satisfying user experience.
The following elements of localizing your app for a different market are susceptible to translation and modification: - Components of interface design
- Text, such as user manuals and usage rules and conditions
- Dates, currencies, and more numerical forms
- Pictures and visual components specific to a nation or culture
- Spoken language recordings on audio, etc.
- That is a really significant topic. Now, let’s discuss every crucial detail of localizing iOS and Android mobile apps.
A Mobile App: Why Localize It?
If your goal is to take your mobile app worldwide, localization need to be a key component of your product development business plan.
Despite the fact that English is the language of global communication, it goes without saying that any user would be happier interacting with a product that allows them to utilize their local tongue while also taking into consideration their cultural quirks. Books and movies sometimes change their names and occasionally even their covers to guarantee effective international advertising.
For example, the Asia-Pacific area now has over 2.7 billion mobile users, and in 2024, it is anticipated that these individuals will install about 200 million applications.
The top ten languages and corresponding nations for app localization are as follows:
- USA, UK, Australia, Canada — English
- Japan is Japanese.
- Mandarin Chinese Mainland Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China
- India’s Hindi
- Russia — Russian
- Korea — South Korea
- German — Germany
- Mexican and Argentine Spanish
- Portuguese — Brazil
- Indonesian — Indonesia
Localizing mobile apps offers the following benefits:
- The potential to join a worldwide market
- more awareness on Google Play and the App Store
- Growth in income and downloads
- Enhanced return on investment
- enhanced user encounter
- increased user ratings, an increase in views and downloads across international markets, and other variables have all contributed to an improvement in the app’s overall ranking.
We have more room to add names to this list. However, I believe you already understood this: localization should undoubtedly be a component of your growth plan for mobile firms.
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Distinctions between Translation and Localization
These two words are often confused for one another. But there’s a big difference between the two. For instance, localization may by default include translating text or other components, but the task at hand involves more than simply translation.
We discuss tailoring the context to the unique features of a certain nation, area, or culture. For example, you may need to change icons and symbols, convert between pounds and kilograms and kilometers and miles, or adjust calendar systems (Gregorian, Chinese, and Muslim). Thus, the procedure suggests a certain departure from personalizing.
Additionally, the term “mobile app internationalization” refers to the process of designing and developing a program without regard to linguistic or cultural quirks unique to a given nation or region. This method streamlines and expedites the process of localizing a product in the future.
In a perfect world, adding a new region to a product would not need engineers to alter the product’s source code.
The Best Ways to Localize a Mobile App with Practical Advice
IDG lists the following as the main localization obstacles that every business attempting to complete the assignment may encounter:
Here are some pointers and tried-and-true methods to assist you get through this kind of job without incident and with success. You are welcome to use the items that were recalled as a reference while working on a project.
1. Provide the required options right away. By separating user interface components (text, graphics, etc.) from the code itself, mobile app internationalization makes future translation easier to do.
2. Examine analytics. By integrating your app with Google Play, the App Store, and third-party analytics providers, you can determine the location of your audience and choose which market is the best fit for your first release.
3. Involve professionals. In addition to translating the software accurately, it’s critical to comprehend the background, language subtleties, and cultural quirks. Users in other nations may interpret the same images and symbols, for instance, in different ways.
4. Modify the layout. Words in various languages may take up 10% less or up to 30% more space on the screen, for example. It might be necessary to make adjustments to the design layout while translating an app into another language.
5. Take the situation into account. Translations of the same word may provide multiple meanings depending on the context. You may leave the relevant comments in the code to facilitate translations.
6. Keep text and graphics apart. It might be difficult to localize your app if you utilize photos with text on them. So it would be wiser to stay away from this behavior.
7. Include a language switcher in the configuration. It might be useful for residents in multilingual communities to have this functionality.
8. Take standards and measuring units into account. There are regional variations in the usage of calendars, metric systems, currencies, address forms, and other formatting components around the globe.
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FAQs and other materials,
9. Give users the option to access reference materials and manuals in their mother tongue. A few developers overlook it.
10. Include language translation from right to left. For example, it is about Arabic or Hebrew. Just consider how much of an impact it may have on the UI design of your app. Use localization tools that facilitate this kind of writing to stay clear of issues.
11. Make App Store optimizations. You must have translated versions of the information, content, and images ready before you can add a foreign language product version to the relevant shop area.
12. Examine the outcomes. Provide a setting that can accommodate a broad variety of real-world use cases for your app’s translated version. Examine the information shown on various screens, run functional tests, etc. It is preferable for you to point up localization mistakes instead of the users.
Let’s Recap
Due to its numerous benefits, app localization is something that all well-known mobile app manufacturers prioritize in order to strengthen their presence in the international market. When executed properly, this method may assist you in expanding your company’s reach internationally, but it does need time, talent, and effort.
In this post, we’ve discussed the critical factors you should consider while creating a multilingual app and offered helpful advice to help you create a very excellent final result.
