Automatic translation on X (Twitter): how to activate this feature to read everything in your language

For years, social networks have been important communication channels, but they always have a significant barrier: language.

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There are approximately 7,000 living languages ​​in the world, which means that communicating with people from other linguistic communities isn't always easy. To overcome this barrier, many social networks include the option to translate user messages. On Twitter, this feature has worked for many years through a link at the bottom of messages that allowed you to translate them into your language using Google Translate.

In July of last year, X (Twitter) began switching its translation functions from Google to Grok, the artificial intelligence associated with the social network. This change was initially implemented in X's mobile apps for the Android operating system. Now, this change has been extended to all users of the platform. According to some Japanese users, for example, the change offers faster translation and better results in some languages. They believe this change helps break down language barriers between their country and the West, as Google's translation wasn't as good as it should have been.

Furthermore, this change comes with a very important new feature: automatic translation. Until now, like other social networks, Twitter offered you the option to translate selected messages by clicking a link. Now you can read all messages in your language, regardless of the language in which they were written. This is a feature that Reddit has been experimenting with since 2023 with some languages ​​and could represent a major leap forward in facilitating communication between different linguistic communities.

This automatic translation is not a default feature, meaning you have to activate it to use it. It's very easy to do: to the right of the link that offers to show the translation of a message, you'll see a gear icon. Just click it. A pop-up window will appear with the translation, offering you the option to translate all messages into your language. The translation is based on the language you have selected as your own in your account settings (click here). I tested it, and when activated, it not only translates messages in different languages ​​but also messages quoted by other accounts.

Nikita Bier, Product Manager at X, announced this change yesterday, stating: "We're rolling out auto-translate worldwide to give posts in any language global reach on X. The translations are powered by Grok and have improved substantially over the last couple months. If you prefer to read in the original language, you can always turn off auto-translate by tapping the gear icon." If you have enabled this option, I encourage you to share your experience in the comments section of this article.

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Photo: NordWood Themes.