How to translate WhatsApp messages on Android and iPhone
After a long while in beta, WhatsApp's Message Translations feature began rolling out to stable users on Android and iPhone about a week ago. The feature allows users to translate messages within 1:1 chats, groups, and channels from one language to another.
While the feature is available to all users, language translation is limited. The number of available languages also depends on your device. For instance, Android users will be able to translate messages in 6 languages while iPhone users get 19 languages. There's no explanation for the wide disparity, however, WhatsApp says more languages will be added.
Using the WhatsApp translation feature is quite easy. However, there are some requirements before you start using this. The first is to update your app to the latest version. You can do this via the Play Store if you use an Android device and via the App Store for iPhone users. WhatsApp also says users require a strong Wi-Fi signal or cellular data and ample storage space to translate.
Below are the steps to translate a WhatsApp message on an Android or iPhone. The process should also work for WhatsApp on iPad:
- Open WhatsApp, and then open a chat, group chat, or channel
- Press and hold the message you wish to translate
- On Android, tap the three dots at the top right corner and select “Translate”. Those using an iPhone should tap “More”, and then “Translate”
- Choose the language you wish to translate from and then proceed to download the language
- Select the downloaded language and tap continue, and then tap “Translate”
- The message will be translated into your default language. The translated message will have the word “Translated” in front of it
- You can change the message back into its original language by long pressing on it and selecting the three dots at the top corner. Tap on “Remove translation”
- On Android, there's an option in the translation menu to have all new messages in the chat to be automatically translated
Below are the list of supported languages on Android and iPhone:
- Android — English, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, and Arabic
- iPhone — Arabic, Dutch English (United Kingdom), English (United States), French (France), German (Germany), Hindi, Indonesian, Italian (Italy), Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese (China mainland), Mandarin Chinese (Taiwan), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Spain), Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.
