title: Internationalization
date: 2019-01-15T05:58:46.000Z
- developer.pidgin.im/wiki/TipsForTranslators
lastmod: 2019-01-21T22:34:09.000Z
Pidgin is used widely across the globe, so having proper
internationalization/translations of the different strings that are displayed in
it is quite important. As no single person can speak all the different languages
in the world, we require the help of our community to help us and take care of
translating Pidgin to the language they know.
## The platforms we use for translations
* Currently Pidgin uses [Transifex](https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/pidgin)
as the platform to manage the translation of the different strings it has.
We do acknowledge that some may be opposed to using Transifex, so even if
that's our preferred way of handling translations you can still choose to
[create a new issue]({{< param "pidginIssuesURL" >}}) and attach your
translation file to it. Please remember to provide your full name, a contact
email address, and the language and country code for the translation you are
* The [translators mailing list](https://lists.pidgin.im/listinfo/translators)
is the recommended channel for translator communications.
## Submitting translations
Our translations are provided by volunteers. To improve consistency and quality
we prefer to have a designated person or group of people maintain each
If Pidgin already has a translation for your language, please contact the
designated translator(s) and ask if you can help. It's possible they are looking
for someone to take over. You can find their email address in Pidgin's
*Help→Translator Information* window. Or, for some languages you can try
contacting the translator(s) via
[Transifex](https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/pidgin/).
If you're unable to contact the designated translator(s) or if Pidgin does not
yet have a translation for your language, email the [translators mailing
list](https://lists.pidgin.im/mailman/listinfo/translators) and ask if anyone is
already working on translating that language. If you are the first one working
on that language, the Pidgin team will guide you on how to set things up in
## Translation statistics
You can see the current translation statistics at
[Transifex](https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/pidgin). Over there you will be
able to find all the languages that Pidgin has been translated to and the
coverage of those translations.
## How translation updates are handled
* Each language will have a current translator assigned to it, a volunteer that
leads the translation effort of the Pidgin strings for this particular
* Current translators are always listed in Pidgin's Translator Information
dialog (*Help → Translator Information* from Pidgin's Buddy List window) by
name, and each translator's e-mail address is included. Because of this, we
need current translators to inform us if their e-mail address changes.
* Translation updates for each language are accepted **only** from its current
* The current translator wishes to retire from translating Pidgin and has
notified the Pidgin Developers.
* The current translator has not submitted an update for at least one year and
does not respond to inquiries.
* The current translator tells us to accept the update and/or treat a new
translator as a co-maintainer of the translation.
* We become aware through verifiable means that the current translator has
We do this to minimize confusion among users--we've found over time that some
translators will choose different ways to translate a given word or phrase,
which inevitably confuses users. We apologize for any inconvenience this may
cause, but we believe that following these rules makes translations better for
If you find yourself in this situation, use the [translators mailing
list](https://lists.pidgin.im/listinfo/translators) or [contact us]({{< ref
"contact" >}}) so that we can evaluate it and make a decision.
## How translations go from Transifex to Pidgin
If you look at the [Pidgin repository](https://keep.imfreedom.org/pidgin/pidgin)
and browse its contents, you'll find a directory called `po`. In it we store all
the different translations, each one in its own `.po` file.
Once the Pidgin Developers team agrees that a new Pidgin release is almost ready
to go and that no new strings will be added or changed, an email will be sent to
the [translators mailing list](https://lists.pidgin.im/listinfo/translators)
stating so. That way, translators are made aware that they need to check if
strings in the language they maintain need to be updated or added. For more
details on this process, check out our [release process]({{< ref
"development/release-process" >}}) page.
