Ask HN: Translating Android

Posted by sicelo on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @03:48PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I would like to translate Android into my native language (Swazi). I am not referring to translating the text in a specific application. Instead, I am interested in translating the core UI/system.

Additionally, I would like to improve the translation for my second language, Zulu, which exists in Android, but would do with some improvement.

Does anyone know how to go about doing that? Searching the web seems to only give me results related to app translation.

( 6 comments | 5 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Translating Android by lovelearning on Wednesday September 20, 2017 @12:56AM (#15290955)

In the Android world, translations are usually found in string resources. See [1], for example.

AFAIK, if you want improved translations, 1) you'd need to either fork AOSP, build a custom ROM, and your users would need to deploy that custom ROM on their devices. or 2) convince Google to accept your changes [2].

Edit: There may be other hacky approaches I'm not aware of. You might find something useful if you trawl the XDA forums [3].

[1]: https://github.com/android/platform_frameworks_base/blob/nou...

[2]: https://source.android.com/source/contributing

[3]: https://forum.xda-developers.com/

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Translating Android by sicelo on Wednesday September 20, 2017 @02:43AM (#15291324)

That GitHub link was very useful! Thanks. I will see how far this gets.

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Re:Ask HN: Translating Android by rahimnathwani on Thursday September 21, 2017 @12:55PM (#15305335)

Consider asking this question on the Android Platform mailing list.

This post seems to be relevant: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/android-contrib/XKqt...

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Re:Ask HN: Translating Android by PaulHoule on Tuesday September 19, 2017 @08:16PM (#15289811)

Look at the Zulu translation first to see how it is implemented.

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Re:Ask HN: Translating Android by sicelo on Wednesday September 20, 2017 @12:44AM (#15290912)

I have not been able to figure it out (or any other language translation for that matter). Or Google translates this in-house with no possibility for outside contributions?

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Re:Ask HN: Translating Android by PaulHoule on Wednesday September 20, 2017 @12:31PM (#15295624)

There has to be a file somewhere that has the translations in it.

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