Meshtastic-Android/docs/en/user/translate.md

title, parent, nav_order, last_updated, description, aliases

title	parent	nav_order	last_updated	description	aliases
Translate the App	User Guide	17	2026-09-11	How the app and its documentation are translated via Crowdin, and guidelines for contributing translations.	translate crowdin localization

Translate the App

The app and its in-app docs are translated on Crowdin — this page shows how to contribute. The app uses Crowdin to manage community translations for both the user interface and in-app documentation.

What Gets Translated

Resource	Source Location	Notes
UI strings	core/resources/src/commonMain/composeResources/values/strings.xml	Buttons, labels, messages, and all user-visible text
User Guide pages	docs/en/user/*.md	In-app documentation shown in Help & Documentation
Fastlane metadata	fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/	Google Play listing title, description, and changelogs

ℹ️ Note: Developer Guide pages are English-only. Code-focused documentation targeting contributors is not translated.

How to Contribute

1. Visit the Crowdin project. Open the Meshtastic Android Crowdin project and sign in or create a free account.
2. Choose your language. Select an existing language or request a new one by opening a GitHub issue.
3. Translate strings. Crowdin shows the English source on the left and your translation on the right. Translate each string and save.
4. Review context. Many strings include screenshots or context comments — check these to understand where the text appears in the app. A scheduled job pulls approved translations from Crowdin and opens a pull request; they ship once a maintainer merges it and a new build goes out.

💡 Tip: Keep translations short. UI strings often appear in buttons, chips, or narrow columns. If a translation is significantly longer than the English original, consider abbreviating where the meaning stays clear.

Adding a New Language

If your language is not yet listed on Crowdin:

1. Open an issue on GitHub requesting the new locale.
2. A maintainer will add the language to Crowdin and configure crowdin.yml.
3. Once added, you can begin translating immediately.

How Translations Are Organized

The Android app uses Compose Multiplatform resources for all user-visible strings:

core/resources/src/commonMain/composeResources/
├── values/              ← English (default)
│   └── strings.xml
├── values-de/           ← German
│   └── strings.xml
├── values-fr/           ← French
│   └── strings.xml
└── ...

In-app documentation follows a similar pattern under docs/:

docs/
├── en/user/             ← English source (default)
│   ├── onboarding.md
│   └── ...
├── fr-rFR/user/         ← French (France)
│   ├── onboarding.md
│   └── ...
├── de-rDE/user/         ← German (Germany)
│   └── ...
└── ...

Doc locale folders use Android locale qualifiers, either {lang} or {lang}-r{REGION} (for example fr, fr-rFR, de-rDE, ja-rJP). The values-* folders for app strings use bare language codes instead (values-fr, values-de, values-ja), because crowdin.yml writes strings with %two_letters_code% and doc pages with %android_code%. The two sets do not line up one-to-one.

The app automatically selects the correct locale based on your phone's Language & Region settings.

A page that came from Crowdin is labeled Community translated under its title in the app. If a page has no Crowdin translation for your language yet, the Google-flavor Android build machine-translates the English source on the fly and labels it Auto-translated instead; F-Droid and desktop builds show the English page. Your Crowdin translation replaces the machine one as soon as it lands.

Translation Guidelines

• Do not translate technical terms like "LoRa", "MQTT", "BLE", "TAK", "SNR", or "RSSI" — these are universal.
• Keep placeholders intact. Strings like %1$s or %d are filled in at runtime. Do not remove or reorder them unless the grammar of your language requires it.
• Match tone. The app uses a friendly, direct voice. Avoid overly formal language.
• Test if possible. Switch your phone's language and open the app to see how translations look in context.

Questions?

If you have questions about a specific string's context or need help getting started, open a discussion on the Meshtastic GitHub Discussions page.

Thank you for helping expand the reach of Meshtastic.

Related Topics

• Units & Locale — how the app picks number, date, and unit formats for your region
• Help & Documentation — the in-app docs browser these pages are published to
• Onboarding — where a new user first meets the translated strings