The world’s population is continually growing, with approximately 7.8 billion people currently on the planet. According to Statista.com, by 2026, more than 7.5 billion people will own smartphones, up from 6.6 billion in 2022. The rapid technical progress of nations like China, Brazil, and India together with the exponential expansion of the population and number of smartphone users, presents a new potential for mobile app development and growth.

All successful mobile marketers incorporate localization into their multilingual mobile app. Pushing your software into other nations with different languages opens up additional income and marketing possibilities.

Alternatively, simply ensuring that your app employs language, spelling, and graphics appropriate for the region in which it already operates might greatly raise the probability of users converting. Many companies make the mistake of using exclusively English in their app and marketing campaigns and end up getting unsatisfactory results.

Offering an experience that appeals to the target market’s local audience is one of the most difficult aspects. The local users would need localization to meet the needs. When designing for the regional and international market, you’ve probably come across the terms internationalization and localization. Integrating them into your strategies with the help of Language Translation Services would help to run a successful mobile app.

Mobile App Localization and Internationalization

Localization:

Localization refers to the process of adjusting a product or content to a certain area or market. The abbreviation l10n refers to the number of letters between the letters l and n. The goal of localization involves giving a product the appearance and feel of keeping it tailored to a specific target market, regardless of language, culture, or region.

Internationalization

Internationalization encompasses a design technique that assures that you can translate a product (typically a software application) to different languages and regions without needing source code changes. Consider internationalization to be the readiness to localize. Internationalization is frequently abbreviated as i18n, with 18 letters between the letters I and n in the English word.

Purpose of Localization and Internationalization:

The purpose of both internationalization and localization is to provide a great customer experience to the market’s customers. These techniques appear to be identical on the surface, but there are significant differences beneath the surface.

What would happen if you forget to run internationalization (i18n) checks for mobile app localization?

Internationalization Checks, if not completed, will result in the failure of the project.

• Failing to implement (i18n) checks could harm product quality.
• When translated to different languages, the mobile app pr software may lose character encoding.
• If the string is not accessible in the targeted languages, the software may shut down or malfunction.
• The style and font size may differ from language to language, impacting the app’s ‘aesthetic appeal.’
• It’s possible that your multilingual mobile app won’t reach the target audience.

Advantages of Internationalization (i18n) Checks:

• You can easily adapt software applications (or other material) into many regions.
• Mobile app localization takes less time and costs less money.
• For all formats of the product, a single, internationalized source code exists.
• It allows easier maintenance
• It helps in enhanced quality and code framework.
• Compliance with global standards reduces the overall ownership costs of the numerous versions of the product.

Internationalization (i18n) Checks at the front end:

The testers must concentrate on Language, Culture, and Region, Dates, and Influential Events when performing internationalization checks. Below stages address front-end checks:

• You should test the user interface first, including text alignment, menus, buttons, dialogue boxes, graphics, toolbars, and prompt and alert messages.
• Next, you should do the second round of content localization and feature testing on language-specific data files as well as the area where you see the enabled or disabled features.
• Third, dates and numerical formats such as currencies, calendars, time, contact number, zip code, and so on should be tested for locale/culture understanding.
• Finally, you should carry out file transfer and display testing. For instance, you should ensure that file transfers are successful and that the scripts backed by the website are exhibited correctly.

Internationalization (i18n) Checks at the Back End:

Character encoding, form data processing, numerous languages and currencies, and site search are all handled by the back end of a website during this stage. Moreover, back end testing necessitates knowledge of the Content Management System (CMS), which is used to author, store, and publish content on sites.

Thus, checking at the back end demands a deep understanding of the database. However, Databases and Content Management Systems have already been internationalized in recent versions.

Best Approaches for Achieving Large-Scale Internationalization Checks:

Mobile app content localization:

The textual information on the sites should be customized to fit the needs of the region or location, including images. In addition, dynamic content, such as pop-up windows that appear when a user does not accurately complete a form on the site, should also be in the translated form. Handling one of the main problems is dynamic content. But, you may solve it by employing the right wait instructions.
Language translation service providers, in addition to developers and testers, should be included in the entire process to ensure that the ‘localized content’ follows the local grammar norms. Additionally, when a combination of English and local language should be employed, language specialists and other project stakeholders must make a decision.

User Interface:The user interface must also adapt to the needs of the target locale. Further, the user interface’s most important elements, such as toolbars, text boxes, dialogue, alerts, boxes, drop-down lists, and so on, should all be verified to verify that locale-specific content displays correctly.Rendering:To ensure that the specified scripts are shown appropriately, internationalization and localization testing must be performed. For instance, the script should comply with the characters unique to the script’s related language. Using cloud-based tools, visual UI testing and website responsiveness can be tested across several browsers and viewports.Automation Checks:Testing an internationalized or localized mobile app may seem difficult, and the difficulties increase with each additional language. Both internationalization and localization testing can benefit from data-driven testing.

When writing localization tests, keep in mind that different regions use different grammatical structures. Thus, you should use switching methods appropriately. The automation testing process must also include the localization group (or a team made up of translation agency’s language experts).

For any translation company with multilingual mobile apps development and other products, internationalization is a key commercial strategy.  Early in the product design stage, it’s essential to evaluate the numerous markets that a product will target and make the required adjustments. I18n makes subsequent localization activities considerably easier, faster, and less expensive when implemented correctly. Contact Audio Bridge, one of the best translation agencies, to know how it can help your business.