Upcoming Automatic Translation Experiment

Updates Announcements
1

Hi Creators,

Localization is essential to making experiences accessible to global users, so we’re always looking for ways to improve translation quality and increase translation coverage across the platform. We plan to run an experiment that fills in missing translations in experiences, with the goal of improving playtime and retention for international players. Once the experiment is over, we will share the results with the community.

Experiment Logistics

For this experiment, a small percentage of users in our automatic translation-supported languages will see automatic translations for any content that does not currently have a translation. This includes in-experience content, experience names, and experience descriptions. We will only generate translations where they are missing - we will not override any existing manual translations.

If your experience is already fully translated in all supported languages, the only change will be that any untranslated dynamic content (content generated at runtime, e.g. user-generated text) will now be translated in real time. Your experience will not be altered in any other way. The experiment will begin in late May and run for 2 weeks, impacting a low percentage of users in the supported languages linked above.

Last year, we performed user research in international markets which showed that players are generally satisfied with the quality of Roblox automatic translations. However, many indicated that encountering untranslated content makes them much less likely to play an experience. As a result, our goal is to see how fully translating everything on Roblox will impact play time and retention. We will be actively tracking these metrics as the test is running; while we have historically seen positive results, if we notice that an experience’s metrics trend negatively, we will shut down the test.

Experiment Results

At the end of each experiment, all translations/experiences will be returned to their current state. After we analyze the results, we plan to share with all of you our findings on how translation can impact your experiences.

Translation Feedback

As always, if you or your players notice any issues with translation quality, you use the translation feedback tool that’s available in the experience settings menu. This will allow you to select translations and let Roblox know what is wrong with it.

1600×1338 520 KB

Additionally, while Roblox cannot replace specific automatic translations during the course of the experiment, you can go to your Localization Portal at any time and add manual translations for impacted strings. This will override any automatically generated translation.

As always, please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you!

81 Likes
2

This topic was automatically opened after 10 minutes.

3

Nice! So many updates this week!:fire:

8 Likes
4

Does this affect labels with AutoLocalize intentionally set to false?

11 Likes
5

Nice update! Will the option to view untranslated messages/content extend to these new translations? And will this option begin to save at some point?

As of right now we have to reenable this option often as it automatically disables (either after leaving an experience or doesn’t save when closing the client?).

5 Likes
6

No - labels with AutoLocalize set to false will remain untranslated.

10 Likes
7

Interesting, let’s see how that goes!

2 Likes
8

Hopefully this works out well, more translation = more players in the end. :+1:

3 Likes
10

I’m a frequent customer player of Jailbreak and I’ve seen people speak Spanish (Or other languages in the chat) only for them to never even be translated (With automatic chat translation on in the settings)

5 Likes
11

Yes, I’ve noticed this too, I always assumed my translator was glitched or something.

6 Likes
12

As a native Spanish speaker, I would like to say this is untrue. The Spanish translation is awful, words are out of context, and it usually mistranslates everything. People got used to it and laugh at them. This is pretty common in many translation tools, such as Google Translator.

7 Likes
13

This week feels like a Roblox Studio Revolution

5 Likes
14

thank you! this will be very helpful

2 Likes
15

Its like the 1000th time we hear about translations, can we have some other news regarding the engine

5 Likes
16

It’s the same for German. For example Da Hood is translated to Da Kapuze (Which means hood but as in the hood that you can wear). It technically translates it correctly but the context is wrong. Also sometimes game’s names are translated even tough they shouldn’t. E.g. Doors was translated to Türen for a long time which I think is now fixed although I reckon the devs just fixed it manually. For people confused why Türen is incorrect: It is the correct translation of Doors but everyone I know who speaks German calls it Doors(And if someone calls it Türen it’s to make fun of the bad translation).

10 Likes
17

i hope this means all those languages i didn’t even know existed will finally be translated into english lol

1 Like
18

Will we get Esperanto added soon?

2 Likes
19

Spanish translations dont work