As WhatsApp continues to expand its ability to communicate across languages, iPhone users may have a very useful new feature in the future: automatic translation of entire chats. This feature has not yet been officially launched, but it has been discovered in the latest TestFlight beta version, showing that WhatsApp is actively preparing to allow users of different languages to communicate more naturally.
WhatsApp for iPhone may soon offer automatic translation in 21 languages
according to WABetaInfo It was discovered that a new “Translate Message” switch appeared in the WhatsApp beta code, and it was set on a “per chat” basis. In other words, users can enable automatic translation for specific conversations, and once enabled, all newly received messages will be immediately converted into the language specified by the user. This is significantly different from the current translation method. The current version requires users to long press the message, click “More…”, and then manually select the original language and target language, which is a relatively cumbersome process.
The new automatic translation function will greatly simplify this process. Users only need to select the source language and target language in the settings, and then all messages will be automatically converted. For example, in the demonstration screen, all received messages will be directly translated into English, making cross-language communication more immediate and natural.
Although this feature is not yet fully open to test users, WABetaInfo pointed out that in the future, WhatsApp will allow users to translate the entire conversation by default, and it will be suitable for one-on-one chats and group chats. However, there is still a prerequisite for automatic translation of group chats: all participants must send messages in the same language so that the system can correctly determine the source language and translate it.
It is worth noting that this feature, like WhatsApp’s current single message translation, relies on the language pack built into the Apple device, which means that the translation process will be completed locally instead of uploading the message to the server for processing. This is a big plus for privacy-conscious users, as WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption will not be compromised by the translation feature.
Currently, Apple’s language pack supports multiple languages, including Arabic, Dutch, English (UK and US), French (France), German (Germany), Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mainland China and Taiwan), Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Spain), Thai, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. As Apple continues to expand language support in the Translate app, WhatsApp’s translation function will also benefit simultaneously and support more language combinations.
As for the official launch time, there is still no clear schedule. As with all TestFlight beta features, this automatic translation feature may be rolled out gradually over the coming weeks or months, or may be adjusted based on the results of testing. Regardless, the emergence of this feature shows that WhatsApp is moving towards a more comprehensive cross-language communication tool, allowing users around the world to more easily overcome language barriers.
Source: KOCPC Chinese