- WhatsApp finally rolls a message translation tool
- It rolls out to Android and iPhone
- There is an additional feature that is exclusive to Android users
WhatsApp finally rolls its highly requested message translation feature for Android and iPhone, a new tool that allows you to translate incoming messages into your preferred language.
Meta revealed the new WhatsApp tool via a blog post that comes months after Apple’s Live translation feature in iOS 26.
To activate a translation in a WhatsApp message, all you need to do is that an incoming message extends an incoming message and selects the New ‘Translate’ option from the context menu, and then select the language you want the message to be translated from or to. You can also download your most used languages for future translations.
One of the advantages of this new tool is that it is not limited to 1: 1 conversations, and can be used in group chats and even channel updates. Meta has also revealed that translations occur on device, as opposed to the cloud that protects your privacy. In terms of language accessibility, WhatsApp starts in the small.
For iPhone users, translations will be available in over 19 languages to begin with. In the case of Android, only six languages (English, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian and Arabic) will be available with more in the future, but Android users will have access to an additional benefit that iPhone users will not.
Thread translations are excluding to Android
Despite the limited language settings for Android users, WhatsApp compensates this with thread translations so you can translate a whole message thread instead of translating them one by one that iPhone users still need to do.
When you activate automatic translation into chat threads, all future incoming messages in this conversation will be translated – saving you plenty of time with future translations.
The arrival of message translations marks a significant change in WhatsApp’s ecosystem, although other messaging platforms introduced similar tools for a while. WhatsApp users have been asking for a translation feature for a few years, and so far they have had to seek third-party solutions such as Swift Translate and Todalingua to solve their translation problems.
With Message Translations, WhatsApp has shared that the “hope (s) this feature helps to break down language barriers and allow users to connect deeper with loved ones and communities across the globe”. It’s a little launch for Android users at the moment, but are likely to grow when more users get used to it.
