I want to make an application that can change many languages, from many tutorials using localization, if using localization we have to write all the text in the application one by one in each json file to the language we want?
can’t it automatically translate without having to write it one by one?
2
Answers
It is indeed possible to automatically translate your application’s text without having to manually write it in each language. There are translation services and APIs available that can automatically translate text from one language to another.
I would recommend to use a machine translation API, such as Google Cloud Translation API or Microsoft Azure Translator Text API. These APIs can be integrated into your application to automatically translate text in real-time as users switch between languages.
Keep in mind that these are machine learning algorithms and will not have perfect results all of the time.
No. Automatic translations are really bad without context and apps are very often about single words that are clear in the graphical context of the app, but ambigous or meaningless without.
Example? Lets say you have a dialog asking whether you want to delete an appointment. And you can decide not to. The problem? Both deleting an appointment and leaving the dialog in English would be called "Cancel".
Translation is also a business model people don’t want you to have for free. Otherwise, what would keep you from writing a translator app?
Translation is available on demand online, but that would mean your app is not available offline, in a tunnel or elevator. Even if available, it would consume lots of traffic. Not ideal.
What you can do is take your file of translations and use an automatic translator to translate that. Then you can use a free translator without any dependencies or traffic bandwidth usage in your app.
I would advise you to have a native speaker proofread this. Contextless translations are bad. Really bad. Language at it’s core depends on context. At least your primary language and English should be checked by a human.