It used to be difficult to stay in touch with friends, family, and colleagues in other parts of the world, but popular messaging apps like WhatsApp have changed that, making it easier than ever. With that said, the people you’re speaking with might not always be in English, and having to copy and paste text into a translation app can be an absolute pain.
So imagine my surprise when WhatsApp announced a new translation feature that will be available for Android and iOS. Going forward, users will be able to long press a message in chat in order to get a translation of the text. This translation feature will also be available for group chats and Channel updates as well.
If you’re not looking to go through all of that, Android users will have the ability to turn on translation for an entire chat, making communication smooth and easy. The great part about all of this is that all translations occur on the device, which means you’re still getting the privacy you know from WhatsApp regardless of the change.
WhatsApp shares that the translation feature will be rolling out to the public release starting today. For Android, users will be able to translate six languages: Arabic, English, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. iOS users will get a lot more with support for more than 19 languages. The plan is to increase the number of supported languages over time.
In addition to the new translation tool, we also saw WhatApp make some interesting changes in its recent beta, adding the ability to mute call-out notifications for group chats. Although the feature hasn’t gone live to the public just yet, it is a feature that’s similar to something found in Slack.
Although WhatsApp is primarily known for messaging, the app is slowly trying to implement more and more tools that will allow easy communication in many different forms. Regardless of how WhatsApp evolves, it’ll be a tool used by many in order to seamlessly communicate with others around the world.
