WhatsApp adds in-chat translation for iPhone and Android

WhatsApp began rolling out a new in-app message translation feature for iPhone and Android users on Tuesday, allowing people to translate messages in one-on-one chats, group conversations and Channel updates without leaving the app. The update lets users long press a message, select Translate and choose the language to translate from or to, with relevant language packs downloaded to the device for future use.

The company said translations are performed on the user’s device so WhatsApp cannot see the content, and that encrypted chats remain protected. Android users will have the added option to turn on automatic translation for an entire conversation so that incoming messages are translated automatically. iPhone users must translate messages manually by tapping Translate after a long press.

Android support at launch is limited to six languages: English, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian and Arabic. WhatsApp said iPhone translation will support the same languages available in Apple’s Translate app and listed Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish,...