Phone and Tablet Tips
Brilliant things to do on your device
ANDROID & iOS
Translate foreign-language messages in WhatsApp
WhatsApp can now translate messages you receive in certain foreign languages. This saves you copying the text to a translation app such as Google Translate to find out what it means.
The translation feature works with messages in both individual and group chats. In WhatsApp for Android, you can currently translate six languages – including Spanish, Hindi and Portuguese – while the iOS app supports 19.
To try the new option, long-press a foreign language message, then tap the three-dot menu icon and select Translate.
Tap ‘Choose’ and download the relevant language pack – you only need to do this the first time you translate that language.
Press ‘Continue’ then Translate ( 1 in our screenshot below left) – the Android app has an additional option for translating all new messages in the chat 2 . WhatsApp will replace the foreign text with its English translation and mark it as ‘Translated’.
To revert to the original language, long-press the message, tap the three-dot menu icon and choose ‘Remove translation’.