Instagram App Adding Automatic Translation

The Verge

Social networking is a global phenomenon and because of this there are billions of people out there typing in many different languages. If you have a lot of foreign friends, this might end up leading to confusion when they type something in their own language. Instagram are making a change that should make this less of a problem and allow more users to interact internationally.

The feature will automatically translate user profile information and comments into the user's chosen language. The actual comments will remain in their original language, but there will now be a see translation button beneath it. If you tap that button, then you'll see what Instagram thinks the person said. The quality of the translation is something we don't actually know right now. It could be like Google Translate and be kind of questionable or it could be improved and actually be worth using. For the moment this translation will only work on new comments in the majority of languages. Instagram have warned that it might not appear on some older posts and they have also said it'll only work for languages that they currently support. We can assume by this, they mean only languages that they offer as option for users currently.

Instagram are a little behind Twitter and Facebook who have offered automatic translation for a while. This sort of thing is necessary now as you don't know who you'll need to contact or what languages they'll be able to read. It could just be that they don't understand one or two words and just need the translation to make sense out of what they read. With Instagram it's maybe not as necessary as it is a photo sharing website. People don't need to be able to read English to be able to see what's going on in an American's picture. However, it will be nice for celebrities and insta-famous users to know what people who speak another language are saying about their pictures.

This feature will become available in July on the official app for mobile devices.

Rosina Brooker

Rosina is a Songbird writer with a degree in Creative Writing. She's trying to focus on her novel on the side but is glad to be playing around with apps and writing about them in the mean time! Follow her @Songbird_Rosina

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