Discussion
Mastodon has an optional translation system to translate posts in languages that you don't speak. To use it, just click on "Translate" below a post (on some apps the translate option may be in the post's ⋯ menu).
I've tried to answer common questions about Mastodon's translation feature in this guide:
➡️ https://fedi.tips/is-there-a-built-in-language-translation-system-on-mastodon
Let me know in the replies if I've missed your question.
@FediTips possible to have this done automatically for all text?
The owner of the server has to pay for the translation service, so doing it automatically could drain your server of the money it needs to keep running.
Servers rely on the support of their users to keep going, as they don't carry any ads or sell anyone's data.
@FediTips oh! i assumed that on device offline translation was used
It depends what you're using to access Mastodon, some third party apps may support doing that. The guide in the original post only covers Mastodon's built-in system, but Mastodon is deliberately open to being used through third party software that can do things differently.
(And of course you can copy-paste text into whatever translation system you prefer.)
@FediTips I always get an error message with that click (waterfox on MacOs). But it's okay -- waterfox has a translate box in the right click menu. Hopefully whatever's going on will vanish in due course. Mastodon forever!
@FediTips Is it possible to translate people's bio?
@NellytheWillow
@FediTips
Some clients, like FediLab on Android, will have a button to do just that.
Not aware of one for web/desktop at present, though.
@Brett_E_Carlock @NellytheWillow
Yup, what Brett said 👍️
Third party apps may have it but the official app and web interface don't yet.
Install bonfire.cafe
Get the full app experience
