Much like its owner, Facebook, the half-a-billion-user-strong social network will soon let users instantaneously translate captions, comments, and users’ profile bios within its mobile apps. To do this, users will be prompted with a familiar “see translation” button, the same method utilized by Facebook in News Feeds and on profiles.
To determine what language the text will be translated to, Instagram will rely on the option defined in the app’s settings. Using the automated machine translation, the text will immediately be replaced for easy reading across native tongues.
There’s no word yet on whether or not the translation will be able to be changed inside individual accounts or within the app as a whole, but from the wording, it’s looking like the latter. While not a huge issue, it could prove beneficial if multiple individuals are using the same business or corporate account across multiple devices.
Automated translation might seem like a small feature, but as Instagram continues its incredible growth, it’ll be important for helping users and brands create and curate content for a global audience. Twitter and Facebook have both had instant translation for some time, so it only makes sense that Instagram implements it as it continues to climb toward the one billion user mark.
Instagram does note that translations of captions and comments might not work with older posts. It’s not specified what defines an “older post,” so only time will tell as the feature rolls out.
The feature is expected to arrive in July.
