- WhatsApp is finally rolling out a message translation tool
- It's rolling out to Android and iPhone
- There's an added feature that's exclusive to Android users
WhatsApp is finally rolling out its highly requested message translation feature to Android and iPhone, a new tool that allows you to translate incoming messages into your preferred language.
Meta unveiled the new WhatsApp tool via a blog post, which comes months after Apple’s Live Translation feature in Messages in iOS 26. At the moment, WhatsApp’s translation capabilities are coming to Android and iPhone, so we don’t know if the same will apply to WhatsApp for the web or its Mac and Windows apps in the future.
To enable a translation in a WhatsApp message, all you have to do is long-press an incoming message and select 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 perks of this new tool is that it’s 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, protecting your privacy. As for language availability, WhatsApp is starting small.
For iPhone users, translations will be available in over 19 languages to start with. In the case of Android, only six languages (English, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, and Arabic) will be available with more to come, however, Android users will get access to an extra benefit that iPhone users won’t.
Thread translations are exclusive to Android
Despite the limited language options for Android users, WhatsApp is making up for this with thread translations, allowing you to translate an entire message thread instead of translating them one by one, which iPhone users will still have to do.
When you enable automatic translation for chat threads, all future incoming messages in that conversation will be translated – saving you loads of time with future translations.
The arrival of message translations marks a significant change in WhatsApp’s ecosystem, though other messaging platforms introduced similar tools a while back. WhatsApp users have been asking for a translation feature for a few years, and until now, 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 it “hope(s) this feature helps break down language barriers and allows users to connect more deeply with loved ones and communities around the globe”. It’s a small launch for Android users at the moment, but is likely to grow as more users get used to it.
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