Are you looking to translate a mobile app to make it accessible to multilingual users on international markets? Translating this type of digital content presents a number of very specific challenges. Discover the solutions for a reliable, high-quality mobile app translation.
Why translate a mobile app?
Having a mobile app translated is essential to enable multilingual customers to use this digital tool with ease, and to enjoy all its features without any language barrier hindering their experience.
Translating a mobile app into a user's native language is also a powerful way to improve the user experience and create trust and closeness with the user. What's more, it's a great way of standing out from the competition and staying competitive.
Finally, multilingual translation opens the door to a global audience and access to international markets, which can lead to a significant increase in the number of downloads of the mobile app.
What are the challenges involved in translating a mobile app?
Translating a mobile app is a complex task that requires a great deal of accuracy on the part of the translator and comes with certain challenges and idiosyncrasies.
Here are some of the challenges involved in translating a mobile app:
- Linguistic and cultural peculiarities: a mobile app groups together many different elements (text, images, numbers, notifications, buttons, etc.). Images, colours and symbols can have different meanings in different cultures. Good localisation must therefore go beyond simple linguistic translation and adapt the visual elements and graphics to the expectations of local users.
- Managing the uniqueness of different mobile devices (iOS and Android): translating app content for smartphones presents unique technical challenges depending on the type of device involved (Android or iOS-iPhone). Adapting content to these interfaces therefore requires practical and methodological know-how. The text must be responsive and visually in keeping with the platform's graphic charter.
- Limited space: once translated, texts can turn out to be longer or shorter than the original content, which can change the layout in the app. For example, a sentence translated from English into German may be longer in the target language than in the source language, which poses a challenge for the developer.
- Cross-disciplinary skills: translating a mobile app may also require cross-disciplinary expertise in specialist translation such as marketing translation (slogans, catchphrases, call-to-actions, push notifications, etc.), web translation, legal translation (legal notices, general terms and conditions), etc. Translators must therefore be able to deal with the complexities of these different sectors to guarantee a reliable translation.
What's more, a poor-quality translation can have a considerable impact on the user experience. Ensuring a good user experience is essential to encourage as many people as possible to download the mobile app and ensure the success of the project.
How do you translate a mobile app?
Translating a mobile app requires careful preparation to understand the interface to be translated, as well as close collaboration between the translator, the client and the developer, and an excellent understanding of the target market and audience.
- Understanding the app to be translated: translating a mobile app requires in-depth preparation on the part of the professional translator. First, the translator needs to obtain all the information from the client that might be useful for the job: brief, glossary, documentation, access codes to the administrator interface, etc. But they also need to test the app in the target language on a smartphone, to familiarise themselves with the interface to be translated.
- Identifying the target audience and market: identifying the markets and audiences for the content to be translated is essential because cultural differences may influence the translation and adaptation of content.
- Working closely with developers: the final translation sometimes requires the developer to modify the interface. This is particularly the case for changes to date formats, units of measurement, currencies, and typographical conventions, all of which need to be correctly localised. In addition, the platform must be able to adjust to languages that are read from right to left (Arabic), or from top to bottom (Mandarin).
Translating your mobile app yourself
Translating your mobile app yourself may seem the best solution, but in reality, it's a complex and demanding task. It’s the cheapest option, but also the most difficult to execute. A good translation must consider the cultural context of the content and adapt it to the speakers of the target language and the linguistic norms of the destination country. The latter may include idiomatic expressions, cultural references, or cultural specificities in terms of syntax and writing style. The process of translating a mobile app is not only time-consuming, but also requires specialised know-how and in-depth knowledge of the methodologies to be applied. What's more, the technical peculiarities encountered are a real obstacle for the amateur translator. The task can be laborious and complex, and errors can compromise the user experience and the correct use of the app's functionalities.
Using automatic translation software for your mobile app
Having your mobile app translated by automatic translation software is a cost-effective, fast, and practical solution. However, although it is often affordable or even free, automatic software cannot compete with a professional, native translator specialising in the IT sector. The quality of machine translations often leaves a lot to be desired and can involve significant syntax and lexical errors. What's more, the random quality results provided by machine translation can have a serious impact on brand image, damage the user experience and jeopardise the credibility of the application and the company.
Using a specialist translator to translate a mobile app
Specialist professional translators provide the sector-specific expertise that is essential to achieve high-quality results. Their mastery of the specific technical terminology guarantees an accurate translation tailored to the requirements of each project. The translator can then adapt the content to preserve its integrity. More specifically, a native speaker translator can effectively translate all the cultural references and idiosyncrasies used in the source text, so that they resonate with the target audience and provide a good experience for the user. In addition, a native and specialist translator knows how to consider the technical and visual constraints inherent in translation, while mastering the specifics of marketing and web translation. They are also able to respect the nuances of the Internet, ensuring a smooth reading experience and content that is adapted to the user platform.
With a global network of more than 3,500 professional native translators, Alphatrad offers multilingual translation services covering more than 100 languages, from the most common to the least common. Their services include the translation of mobile apps, e-commerce platforms, websites, business software, and much more.
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FAQ on mobile app translation
How do you translate mobile apps?
The process of translating mobile apps involves localising the content, i.e., adapting the texts to the linguistic and cultural norms of the target country. This type of translation also involves specific constraints linked to the peculiarities of the interface, the smartphone model and the operating system concerned (Android or iOS). The translated content must be responsive and integrate with the other graphic and visual elements of the mobile app.
How can I translate a mobile app for free?
Translating a mobile app free of charge can be done using automatic translation platforms such as Google Translate or DeepL. However, these tools do not guarantee the quality of the final output and can be woefully inaccurate. It is also possible to translate the mobile app yourself, manually, provided you have sufficient language skills. However, this is a colossal and very tedious task. The most reliable translation option is to use the services of a professional translator, who can guarantee a reliable result that is faithful to the original content and adapted to the local culture.
How do you translate an app into French?
To translate a mobile app into French, it is best to work with a professional French-speaking translator who is a native of the country or region to be translated (France, Belgium, Quebec, Switzerland, etc.). They will be perfectly familiar with the cultural and linguistic nuances of the market in question. The translator must also have sector-specific expertise and in-depth knowledge of the terminology, to offer a tailor-made high-quality service. Once the translator has translated the content, all that remains is to integrate the translated files into the interface, before carrying out usability tests to ensure a smooth user experience.
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