Re: Localization based on location
Re: Localization based on location
- Subject: Re: Localization based on location
- From: Marc Respass <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2012 10:44:03 -0400
Hi John,
I am American but I've been studying Spanish for years so I run my Macs and iDevices in Spanish but everything else is American (dates, punctuation, etc.). It really sticks out (in a bad way) when an app is partially localized or, based on my language setting, makes assumptions other than I want the words to appear in Spanish (such as, I live in Spain or use Euros for currency). The apps I am working on use user preferences, standard .lproj localizations.
As for App Store and iTunes, on iOS 5.1.1 (and as long as I can remember), those apps appear on my phone in Spanish. If I switch my language to English, they will be in English. They don't change depending on where I am and I completely agree that it would be strange (and terrible) if my phone changed its language based on where I am. Just imagine flying from Paris to Moscow!
Marc
> Hello.
>
> We currently have an iOS app available in English. We have decided to
> localize it into other languages, but first we wanted to look into how
> other companies are doing it in order to determine what the best
> practices would be.
>
> When we looked at how Apple localizes their apps we found something
> which we think is very strange. The App Store and iTunes apps
> determine their language based on the location of the user. For
> example, a user in Germany will get the entire apps in German even if
> the rest of the phone is configured to run in English.
>
> Of course the app content will differ between different countries, for
> example not all apps are available in every country and so on. But we
> are puzzled on why the rest of the app such as navigation buttons and
> labels are localized this way.
>
> An obvious scenario when this breaks would be an English speaking
> American moving to Germany. It is possible that he or she don't want
> to learn German and therefore keep using the apps in English.
>
> We fail to see why this would be a good way to localize an app but
> since Apple is doing it we assume that there has to be a good reason
> for it. Is this something that developers should learn from and do in
> their own apps?
>
> John
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