Mobile app localization involves transforming your application’s functionality, user interface (UI), and content for your target audience in different regions. It has several critical elements that need meticulous planning for the successful expansion of your mobile app. In this guide, we will discuss the top 10 app localization best practices to help you navigate the localization terrain easily.
So, are you ready to unveil the best practice? If YES! We recommend that you read this guide till the end.
1. Keep Design Flexible to Fit Text Variations
The first app localization best practice is to keep in mind that not all languages will take the same space in the design. The text may shrink or expand when you go from one language to another.
For example, a 1,000-word document in Arabic may be converted into English to 1,250 words, i.e., 25% text expansion. Contrarily, translating an English document of 1,000 words into Danish will convert to 900 words, i.e., a 10% text contraction.
Besides, languages like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc., may result in vertical text expansion, which can become another challenge during the localization process.
Quick Tip:
Keep your application design flexible to accommodate different languages and offer a great user experience across all your target markets.
2. Leverage Pseudo-Localization
Another mobile app localization best practice is Pseudo-localization. It is a process of testing aspects of the internationalization of software. It enables you to replace the textual elements of your app with an altered version of the original language. This saves you time and helps you stay prepared before linguistic experts start working on the actual translation.
How does it work? Pseudo-localization lets you shrink or grow the text length to test the translations and won’t disturb your design once you have them.
Now, you may wonder how to check it without knowing the estimates. We have got you covered! The following chart will help you understand the degree of text expansion or contract after language conversions so that you can test it with pseudo-localization.
| Source Language | Target Language | Text Expansion/Contraction |
| Arabic | English | -20% to -25% |
| Chinese | English | varies |
| Danish | English | +10% to +15% |
| Finnish | English | +30% to +40% |
| French | English | -10% to -15% |
| German | English | -20% to -35% |
| Greek | English | -5% to -20% |
| Japanese | English | +10% to +55% |
| Korean | English | +10% to +20% |
| Norwegian | English | +10% to +15% |
| Portuguese | English | -5% to -15% |
| Spanish | English | -10% to -20% |
| Swedish | English | +10% to +15% |
The above table lists the estimated text contraction/expansion when you translate from different languages into English. If your source language is English, you can reverse the chart, i.e., a 10% – 15% expansion from Swedish to English will become a 10% – 15% contraction when translating from English to Swedish.
Quick Tip:
Pseudo-localization tools enable you to pre-populate text with machine-translated values. Besides, you can even use identifiers to spot pseudo-localized strings.
3. Design Interface Supporting All Types of Languages
One of the best practices for localizing mobile applications involves listing all your target languages that follow the script from right to left (e.g., Arabic). People who use multilingual keywords, with one language starting from left to right and another right to left, understand the struggle of it. Besides, it can distort the application design and overall user experience.
Quick Tip:
We recommend you design two variations of your app. One design will support languages starting from left to right, while the other will have an interface favoring languages starting from right to left.
4. Use Glossary for Consistency
Here’s another app localization best practice for the textual elements. Create a glossary to keep your brand terms consistent across languages. For the unversed, a glossary is a list of words related to a specific subject that also contains their descriptions.
Style guide and glossary ensure consistent terminology and translations throughout the app localization process. It is also advisable to define whether terminology is translatable or case-sensitive.
Quick Tip:
Use a glossary from the start and keep it updated to ensure consistency and speed up the translation process for linguistic experts.
5. Identify and Research Your Target Market
It is a crucial app localization step. If you target the wrong markets, your localization efforts will go in vain. Search the web for the regions that need your mobile app and jot them down to explore opportunities.
Another way to determine your target markets is to see where your competitors are directing their efforts and trying to follow in their footsteps.
For example, research emerging markets and see if your competitors are targeting those regions. If they are favoring one region, chances are the left-out region is challenging to win over. However, don’t put anything to second guess! Do your market research before shortlisting your target markets.
Quick Tip:
Another best practice for localizing mobile apps will be to prioritize the countries or regions on the list. You can’t localize the content for every market at once. Thus, you should follow Netflix’s globalization strategy and target one market at a time.
You must also conduct a thorough research of the market to find out the following details:
- Country’s demographics
- Cultural nuances and sensitivities
- Favorable content formats
- Local keywords and phrase research for your app’s SEO optimization
- Local preferences for graphics and colors
- Number of spoken dialects
- Potential user base
- Socio-cultural influences impacting user behavior
- Official/ spoken language(s) in a country
6. Effectively Use Internationalization
Regardless of your industry and business type, the intelligent way to localize your app is through mobile app internationalization (i18n). If you ignore it, you can still localize your app, but it involves creating multiple code versions. However, it is an inefficient approach. It will require updating every code version separately, even for minor content changes.
i18n is another app localization best practice. It involves code customization, so the app is ready to be localized and released in multiple languages. You can consider i18n as the first step for localization. It enables the code to handle the localization of the content. Simply put, localization is content customization, and internationalization is code customization.
Thus, internationalization should happen during the app development stage.
Quick Tip:
Train your developers on i18n and avoid hard-coding strings. Also, focus on creating a global-ready code by appropriately formatting the currencies, date, time, phone numbers, etc.
It will help you to effectively adapt your content for different regions, cultures, and languages.
7. Decide Your Localization Budget
Every business is different, and so is the capability to spend money and time localizing mobile applications for various foreign markets. It requires hiring translators, localization experts, and developing marketing materials.
Besides, the more languages you target and the additional functions you want to add, such as video translations, voice-overs, subtitles, etc., the further your budget increases.
Additionally, your goals matter! If you want minimal viable localization (MVL), you will require less budget than you need to implement a full-fledged global expansion strategy.
Quick Tip:
Even though entering several markets at once seems compelling, it can be a DISASTER! Thus, we recommend you start small, use the trial and error method, and improve your localization strategy for future market expansions based on the lessons learned.
8. Set Clear KPIs to Measure ROI
App localization is not just a marketing stint. It’s a strategic move that requires thorough planning and effective execution to yield positive results. Therefore, the next app localization best practice requires you to determine relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure your penetration and success in the foreign market.
Failure to define clear KPIs, and measuring app localization return on investment (ROI) will become challenging. Here’s the formula:
Quick Tip:
Localization ROI is not the only KPI that you should measure. Other metrics help you in assessing your localized project’s success:
- App visibility, including likes, shares, and page views
- Campaign analytics from various markets
- In-app engagement rates
- Increase in market share
- Increase or decrease in app downloads
- Paid conversion rates
- Positive or negative reviews (in-app or on review sites)
9. Test Your Localized App
One of the best practices for localizing mobile apps before the launch is testing. There are two test phases:
- Smoke test
- Beta test
In the smoke test, you check whether localization has compromised your mobile app’s performance. For this testing, you don’t need a software quality assurance (QA) specialist well-versed in the target language. You need someone familiar with the app and its functionality.
The QA specialist will conduct and oversee minor functionality tests to ensure the application responds as expected against various actions. These tests will assess the functionality and stability of the app. In this phase, you will identify and rectify bugs related to user experience (UX).
Now that you have checked your app’s functionality, it is time for the beta test. At this test phase, you receive feedback from QA specialists who are well-versed in the target language. This check will ensure your app is localized accurately and is culturally coherent.
You can outsource this process to native-speaker beta testers if you don’t have any in-house testers. It is a crucial phase in app testing where you may need to distribute your app and collect feedback effectively.
You can also leverage in-app feedback tools to streamline this process, as it can help the developers and testers work collaboratively in one centralized location. Developers can then work on the feedback to make the necessary linguistic changes before the launch.
Quick Tip:
Invest in an in-app feedback tool because it will help you collect and process suggestions related to the app’s functionality and performance throughout its lifecycle. Besides, it will help you improve the interface, fix bugs, and add new features based on user feedback.
10. App Store Optimization (ASO)
Your app localization efforts are only as good as your app store optimization (ASO). Thus, we have included it in our list of best practices for localizing mobile applications.
ASO helps you get app store exposure. It involves optimizing your mobile app screenshots, titles, descriptions, keywords, etc., for different app stores.
If you want your mobile app to become a global sensation like Netflix, you must perform ASO from scratch in every target language. Here’s how the process works:
- Determine the trending keywords and search phrases in each target market.
- Update your app’s description, title, and other sections accordingly
- Understand how different app stores (e.g., Play Store, App Store, etc.) enable optimization. For example, Apple’s App Store has a 100-character limit to its keyword field.
Quick Tip:
Are you struggling to comprehend the elements of the mobile app that need optimization for maximum download rates on app stores? We have got you covered. Here’s a quick list to help you get started:
- Icons – Your mobile app’s icon also needs optimization. Consider how your icon may look on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Take a step back to ponder whether your icon is globally acceptable or if you need to localize it to make it culturally appropriate for different target markets.
- Keywords – Conduct multilingual keyword research based on locale since each target market has varying search behavior.
- Metadata – Localize your mobile app’s metadata, i.e., app title and description for each app store, based on your multilingual keyword research.
- Positional information – Add location-specific information, such as for what regions your application is relevant to, for better app store indexing.
- Screenshots – Avoid using the same app screenshots for all target regions. Localize them based on cultural appropriateness and local preferences.
- User-generated content – App reviews and ratings play an integral role in your mobile app’s success. Thus, you need to keep an eye on these and try to respond and work on negative reviews promptly.
- Video content – Don’t forget to localize the video content you intend to add to the app stores for added relevancy.
Bottom Line
This guide walked you through the 10 best practices for localizing mobile applications with some tips to help you achieve your desired results. It may be overwhelming to implement all these tips at once, but with careful planning, you can divide the process into different phases and avoid making blunders.
Even then, if you find it difficult, you should outsource the processes to a media localization company like Limegreen Media. Its app localization services will offload your shoulders from implementing localization strategies and help you get the job done without the need to hire and train a team of in-house localization experts. Besides, outsourcing is a cost-effective solution.
