Reddit launching auto-translation in more languages

Reddit has announced that it’s expanding its whole-site machine translation feature to more than 35 new countries, following its initial launch in France earlier this year.

The new translation feature is now available to Redditors in Brazil and Spain, and will roll out to Germany, Italy, and the Philippines “in the coming weeks.”

The feature will also launch in “countries throughout Latin America,” Reddit said in an announcement but did not specify further.

The real-time, whole-site automatic translation is already available in France, where Reddit first introduced the feature five months ago.

The focus on translation comes after Reddit went public in March and sees the international expansion of its English-centric forums as a source of growth.

To translate their entire feed, including posts and comments, from a community’s original language to their Reddit set language, users simply need to click the “translate” icon in the overflow menu.

Contributions in their preferred tongue will also be automatically translated to the forum’s original language.

“For example, someone in Spain who typically uses Reddit in Spanish can follow and contribute to French-language discussions,” Reddit said.

In the coming weeks, Reddit said it will also introduce a banner that will indicate translated posts and there will be an option to see them in the original language as well.

People will also see machine-translated content in search results, which Reddit said would make it “easier” for people to find information and communities in their own languages on platforms like Google.