How many times have you felt delighted by seeing a website or mobile app allowing you to switch to a version of your mother tongue? Well, such multilingual websites and apps are still not very common, given the kind of development challenges and cost they involve. But multilingual apps are the new in-thing now because of several awesome benefits.
Let's explain these benefits, followed by key features and development considerations for a multilingual app project.
Why Should One Choose a Multilingual App?
Most apps around the world prefer to choose the default English language or the dominant language of the region where they operate or the language of the majority of their users. But considering the global business opportunity for many apps to address users far and wide just by finding a solution to cross the language barrier, the multilingual approach is likely to be popular for a variety of app niches.
In spite of being proficient in English, a Swedish person invariably prefers being communicated in Swedish. The same goes for most native language speakers around the world. Actually, by communicating with users in their native languages, you can connect with them more emotionally.
Here are the key advantages of multilingual apps:
A Great Scope of Personalization
Thanks to multilingual apps, you can personalize the user experience to a great deal. Just by allowing them to switch to their native language version of the app, you create a sense of freedom, flexibility, and personal touch.
The Ultimate Way to Localize User Experience
Living in an era of "Local is Global" temperament, there is no better way to localize user experience than allowing the users to communicate in the local language. By allowing them to use the local language and being addressed in a local language, an app brand can break the geographical barrier easily.
Cultural and Emotional Engagement
A native language basically holds all the colors, shades, tones, and delicate insinuations of a tradition and culture that cannot be conveyed easily with other languages. By allowing communication in a local language, you can emotionally connect with the users thanks to these cultural attributes.
Wider Outreach
Thanks to multilingual communication accommodating multiple app versions in different languages, you can reach out to a wider audience breaking all geographic and cultural barriers and emerge as a truly global app.
Is a Multilingual App for Everyone?
To answer it straightforwardly, no, it is not. Not all apps need to communicate in multiple languages. An app typically addressing an audience in mainland China does not require this approach. An entertainment app catering to North Indians is likely to be in Hindi. So, not all apps need to be multilingual. It all depends upon the target audience and the respective regions.
On the other hand, one must remember the wide array of challenges involved in developing a multilingual app. It needs meticulous planning and well-thought-out execution involving considerable development time. Many brands for their multilingual app projects hire developers from India simply to evade higher development costs and top-notch quality work.
Multilingual app projects can also slow down development compared to the apps built using just one language. Lastly, you should go through an extensive audience and market research on a global scale to select the languages for your multilingual app.
Must-have Features for Multilingual Apps
Just as translation is not just a literal replacement of words of one language by another, a multilingual app is never constrained by a similar replacement of all the communication string from one language to another. Let us briefly discuss here the must-have features and attributes for a great multilingual app.
**An Easy to Access Language Selection Screen
A dedicated language selection screen within the app is a more helpful solution than just a language selection box user needs to check when installing the app. This will allow users to switch to any language of choice in the future instead of sticking to one language they chosen during the installation. Moreover, once a language is selected, it should be the default communication language until and unless the user changes it again.
Mention Language Names Instead of Flag Signs
Within the language selection screen, allow users to see the names of all language options in the native language. Since country flags do not represent a language choice in countries with speakers of multiple languages, it is better to avoid flag signs and instead mention the language in native terms.
**Build the User Interface with All Language Options
This is quite obvious that in a multilingual app, users would like to use the buttons and menu in their preferred language. But make sure your design can accommodate every language without really overlapping layout and design blocks because of longer words in some languages.
Mind the Differences with Dates and Currencies
In different languages, the calendar, numbers, currencies, measurements and address formats may differ, and when developing a multilingual app, you need to accommodate these differences to give it a real native feel. For example, in address form fields, you have to accommodate country-specific postal code format.
Culture-Specific Icons and Symbols
Using symbols and icons in-app interfaces is a popular way to communicate the users in a smart and less time-consuming manner. But in a multilingual app, the use of symbols and icons is sensitive as it involves different cultural contexts to the native language speakers of various countries. Make sure no symbol or icon can offend any of your users or can be found to be abusive or disrespectful.
Conclusion
Multilingual apps in a globalized environment are likely to get popular, and in the time to come, we can see more apps now catering to a small user base in a country that can reach out to global audiences by embracing a multilingual app. Actually, various studies have already reported a sharp increase in revenues and audience engagement thanks to a multilingual app. In many countries, local content and merchandise from global brands are increasingly getting popular, and hence businesses are increasingly tending to switch to multilingual apps.
Guest Author
Juned Ghanchi is CMO and Co-founder of IndianAppDevelopers a top mobile app development company in India with a dedicated team of iOS and Android developers, Juned focuses on providing mobility solutions that leverage state-of-the-art technologies to startups and the world's biggest brands alike.