Mobile App Localization: 10 Main Challenges and Solutions

So, it’s undeniable that proper app localization brings lots of advantages, but it also comes with challenges.

Let’s see some.

Apps are designed to be used on a small screen, such as a smartphone screen, which means that the text can’t be too long, otherwise some UI elements may break or overflow if they were designed for a specific language.

Some languages, such as German or Italian, take up much more space than English, while languages like Japanese or Korean are shorter in character count, but taller in appearance.

Character restrictions are particularly relevant for buttons, tab titles, and menu items. Flexible layouts like auto-resizing text containers can be a good solution, but in most cases, localizers will have to get creative and come up with ideas to shorten text units while maintaining clarity.

A good example of this is the activation setting for Wi-Fi on a computer or a smartphone. In Italian, words like “attivo”, “non attivo” are too long to be displayed on the button, therefore, localizers usually keep the English “on” and “off”. In Spanish, it’s common to use “Sì” and “No” in this case. In some other cases, fonts can be compressed to make a long word visible without abbreviating it.

Moreover, some platforms have their own character limits. iOS doesn’t support more than 178 (around 30 for the title, around 150 for the body) characters in push notifications, while Android doesn’t support more than 240 characters, plus 60 for the title.

If the notification text exceeds this limit, it won’t be entirely visible on the wallpaper, which affects the readability of the notification and, consequently, the user’s interest. Getting used to this limitation can be hard at first, since we don’t have strict limitations when we write.

Keep an eye on all the apps on your smartphone and check how character limitations were solved in different sections of the app in your target language to get some ideas for your own work.

If you’ve ever played a game on your smartphone or used a poorly localized app because you couldn’t do otherwise, you’ll understand what I mean.

Apps meet some of the users’ most important needs, and they want them to do their job fast. Most users won’t delete an app for a wrong verb or a typo (I’m thinking about all the times I’ve seen the verb “to save” translated with “salvare” into Italian), but they will delete it if it has too many bugs, if it’s too slow, or if instructions are unclear.

The user wants to know exactly what will happen once they touch a button. Make sure your translation is intuitive, user-friendly, understandable, and tailored to the target user.

The localization of an app like WhatsApp, used by everyone, including older people, requires a different tone than an app like BeReal, mainly designed for younger people who are familiar with social media dynamics.

This issue is crucial in localization, other than strongly linked to usability and likability. Localization is all about adapting content to foreign customers, who are used to different time and date formats, different currencies, and even different payment methods.

If an Italian user has to fill in information in a MM/DD/YYYY format or only sees the price of an item in dollars, they will probably delete the app. Never forget to change the time and date format so that users won’t get confused. Ask the client for all necessary information about price changes in a foreign currency.  

Buttons and menu items guide the user through the whole app and are a key element to a smooth user experience. Keep it short and simple, use commonly known abbreviations, and make sure the user understands exactly what to do.

Buttons come in different shapes, colours, and animations. Check where it appears on the original app and how it behaves, if possible.

What does it trigger? Check the page that opens once you click on the button. Make sure that your translation is coherent with the layout. A smart move here is, again, to explore the apps you use and check how frequently used buttons (such as “Learn more”, “Shop”, “Add to cart”, “Send”, and so on) are localized.

% items added to your cart > 8 items added to your cart

Removing % items > Removing 3 items

Variables can turn into nightmares for linguists. Most languages have different plural forms based on the nouns’ gender or the context, while English only has one plural form. So, what happens with inflected languages?

A good solution may be to rephrase the sentence so that it fits all cases, if this aligns with localization engineers’ instructions. Here’s an example:

Number of items in your cart: 8

You could also create separate strings for each form and inform the app developer or the client so that they handle the code for every string. The right solution depends on the client’s needs, but you could offer different options.

Launching an app in a foreign country means adapting to that country’s laws and legal requirements. The company must consider all legal matters, but linguists must be able to craft a communication strategy that reflects this commitment. Most apps have a Terms and Conditions section that has to be localized according to the target country. Legal requirements also include payment processing regulations, age verification procedures, tax and reporting obligations, content moderation, and so on.

Languages like Arabic, Urdu, or Hebrew are written right-to-left (RTL).

This problem is usually handled by app developers by allowing RTL support when needed through software like Quasar Framework.

The same goes for accented characters, diacritics, ligatures, or non-Latin scripts: to avoid character break, app developers must ensure Unicode (UTF-8) support in the app, backend, and database.