WhatsApp has announced the launch of a new translation feature, allowing users to translate messages into their preferred language directly within the app. The feature will be gradually rolling out to iPhone and Android devices for private conversations, group chats, and Channel updates.
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To translate a message, simply long-press on the text and select the “Translate” option. Users can select both the source and target languages, with the option to download language packs for future use. WhatsApp says all translations are done locally on the user’s device, backed by the app’s end-to-end encryption, which ensures that even parent company Meta cannot see the content of messages.
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WhatsApp users on iPhone have translation support for over 19 languages, including Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.
Android users can access translation in six languages, but they also get an extra convenience feature: automatic translation for entire chat threads. Once enabled, all incoming messages in a conversation are automatically translated without requiring manual activation for each message.
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The launch follows Apple's introduction of Live Translation for Messages as part of the iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe releases earlier this month. WhatsApp plans to expand language support in future updates, but did not say when the feature would come to WhatsApp for web or desktop.
