#4560·pixelfed

On demand language translation for posts

Author: somaamosCreated Jul 28, 2023Updated Sep 17, 2026
Labelstriage

A feature for translating text in posts similar to Mastodon. This would require something like:

  • a default interface language setting in profile (defaults to system setting)
  • a way to change the language setting when creating a post (and it defaults to the profile setting)
  • when rendering a post, detect whether post language is different than users' interface language and offer a translate link in the post
  • when user clicks translate link, connect to deepL.com (or other service) to translate the text and then update the post text in situ
  • once translated, offer a link to display the original untranslated text

Easy way to observe suggested behavior is to scroll the Mastodon global feed and spot a post in another language.

Limitations:

  • Must be logged in for translation to work. Public users don't get this feature. Mastodon seems to limit this feature to logged on users for performance or throughput reasons?

Idea:

  • Can component(s) from Mastodon be reused for this? This should be a Fediverse best practice.

Benefit:

  • Global community