How to change language of app when user selects language?

Question

I want my app to support three languages Spanish,Portuguese & English. And give option to select language in app.I have made

1) 3 drawable folders drawable-es,drawable-pt,drawable.

2) 3 values folder values-es,values-pt,values.Change String.xml values according to languages.

I have imageView to select language.When click it menu open that consists option English,Spanish,Portuguese.

I set Locale inside app on option selection by this code

public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(MenuItem item) { switch (item.getItemId()) { case R.id.en: Locale locale = new Locale("en"); Locale.setDefault(locale); Configuration config = new Configuration(); config.locale = locale; getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics()); Toast.makeText(this, "Locale in English !", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show(); break; case R.id.pt: Locale locale2 = new Locale("pt"); Locale.setDefault(locale2); Configuration config2 = new Configuration(); config2.locale = locale2; getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config2, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics()); Toast.makeText(this, "Locale in Portugal !", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show(); break; case R.id.es: Locale locale3 = new Locale("es"); Locale.setDefault(locale3); Configuration config3 = new Configuration(); config3.locale = locale3; getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config3, getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics()); Toast.makeText(this, "Locale in Spain !", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show(); break; } return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item); }

I have declare in Manifest- android:configChanges="locale"

It work but it have some issue.

Problem:-

1)When language selected, screen that consists image of language selection not change but other screens are change.

2)After orientation change app restore language according to locale of phone.

For the 2nd problem try adding: android:configChanges="locale" for your Activity inside the AndroidManifest.xml — Parth Doshi
– Parth Doshi, Commented Oct 16, 2012 at 6:13
You can use the following library, which provides the language list, the preference for your settings screen, and overrides the language in your application: github.com/delight-im/Android-Languages — caw
– caw, Commented Aug 30, 2014 at 16:07

Community · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-22 13:48:13Z

It's excerpt for the webpage: http://android.programmerguru.com/android-localization-at-runtime/

It's simple to change the language of your app upon user selects it from list of languages. Have a method like below which accepts the locale as String (like 'en' for English, 'hi' for hindi), configure the locale for your App and refresh your current activity to reflect the change in language. The locale you applied will not be changed until you manually change it again.

public void setLocale(String lang) { Locale myLocale = new Locale(lang); Resources res = getResources(); DisplayMetrics dm = res.getDisplayMetrics(); Configuration conf = res.getConfiguration(); conf.locale = myLocale; res.updateConfiguration(conf, dm); Intent refresh = new Intent(this, AndroidLocalize.class); finish(); startActivity(refresh); }

Make sure you imported following packages:

import java.util.Locale; import android.os.Bundle; import android.app.Activity; import android.content.Intent; import android.content.res.Configuration; import android.content.res.Resources; import android.util.DisplayMetrics;

add in manifest to activity android:configChanges="locale|orientation"

Be sure to add finish() so that you don't have two copies of your activity in the navigation stack.
finish() needs to be called before startActivity(refresh). Otherwise App may exit instead of the Activity being restarted.
Hi, I did it, it works, but when I restart the app, it returns to the default language ..
Configuration config = new Configuration(newConfig); config.locale = locale; In my case getting this message. locale deprecated in API level 25
This answer needs to be updated since some of the APIs used are now deprecated.

Arturo Volpe · Accepted Answer · 2023-07-04 00:12:21Z

all the above @Uday's code is perfect but only one thing is missing(default config in build.gradle)

public void setLocale(String lang) { Locale myLocale = new Locale(lang); Resources res = getResources(); DisplayMetrics dm = res.getDisplayMetrics(); Configuration conf = res.getConfiguration(); conf.locale = myLocale; res.updateConfiguration(conf, dm); Intent refresh = new Intent(this, AndroidLocalize.class); finish(); startActivity(refresh); }

Mine was not working just because the languages were not mentioned in the config file(build.gradle)

 defaultConfig { resConfigs "en", "hi", "kn" }

after that, all languages started running

@JCarlosR yes. when I added languages in config file Udhay's code started running

sud007 · Accepted Answer · 2020-05-03 10:39:00Z

11

Good solutions explained pretty well here. But Here is one more.

Create your own CustomContextWrapper class extending ContextWrapper and use it to change Locale setting for the complete application. Here is a GIST with usage.

And then call the CustomContextWrapper with saved locale identifier e.g. 'hi' for Hindi language in activity lifecycle method attachBaseContext. Usage here:

@Override protected void attachBaseContext(Context newBase) { // fetch from shared preference also save the same when applying. Default here is en = English String language = MyPreferenceUtil.getInstance().getString("saved_locale", "en"); super.attachBaseContext(MyContextWrapper.wrap(newBase, language)); }

edited May 3, 2020 at 10:39

answered Sep 3, 2017 at 15:01

sud007

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5 Comments

Abhinav Chauhan Over a year ago

Thanks for the link it is working but i didn't understand a few things , i just called the MyContextWrapper.warp in onAttach of just one fragment of my app but the language was changed for the whole app, but the activity titles were not changed , i think it is because the manifest titles takes precedence , but if i call the same method in onAttachBaseContex on my subclass of application the activity titles also changes to selected language , but then the changes are only applied to the fragment i called in the warp method, why is that ?

sud007 Over a year ago

@AbhinavChauhan I am not sure about this to be true. I need to check that one. I have never faced this issue when I implemented this solution. However, It has been long time and there may be some changes in the Android implementation for newer versions. Alternatively try some newest answers on this post.

Abhinav Chauhan Over a year ago

i tried many solution but non of them worked or maybe i implemented them incorrectly , may your class works good with activities , i am using it warp method in onAttach of the fragment ,previously i said i just needed to do it with mainactivity fragment and language changed in whole app it is true, but for all other fragments language changes to english on configuration change so i need to put in onattach of all the fragments and instead of manifest i set the actionbar titles in code , now the app is working as expected. thanks

sud007 Over a year ago

Okay! I am sure you do not have to do this for every screen, just the first activity that launches and inside the attachBaseContext function only. And that does it for all the screens. Have you created a `BaseActivity' for all activities in your app?

Abhinav Chauhan Over a year ago

No i was trying to do it in the my subclass of application thinking that it will be applied to whole application , then in all fragments, but it turns out that the wrap() code needs to be executed at every configuration changes , so i putted it in the Abstract activity from which all other activities extends , now it is working

Box Box Box Box · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-17 04:15:57Z

6

You should either remove android:configChanges="locale" from manifest, which will cause activity to reload, or override onConfigurationChanged method:

@Override public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) { super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig); // your code here, you can use newConfig.locale if you need to check the language // or just re-set all the labels to desired string resource }

edited May 17, 2016 at 4:15

Box Box Box Box

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answered Oct 29, 2013 at 21:08

Frane Poljak

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2 Comments

portfoliobuilder Over a year ago

Removing android:configChanges="locale" from manifest does not prevent app from restarting. It will restart regardless of if that is added to manifest or not.

Frane Poljak Over a year ago

I'm not saying that removing android:configChanges="locale" from manifest prevents the app from restarting, I'm saying exactly the opposite. Now, for the case when we have android:configChanges="locale" in the manifest, it used to prevent the app from reloading at the time I wrote this answer, I can't say for sure it's the case now.

Oscar Emilio Perez Martinez · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-16 15:13:55Z

Kotlin solution using context extension

fun Context.applyNewLocale(locale: Locale): Context { val config = this.resources.configuration val sysLocale = if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) { config.locales.get(0) } else { //Legacy config.locale } if (sysLocale.language != locale.language) { Locale.setDefault(locale) if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) { config.setLocale(locale) } else { //Legacy config.locale = locale } resources.updateConfiguration(config, resources.displayMetrics) } return this }

Usage

override fun attachBaseContext(newBase: Context?) { super.attachBaseContext(newBase?.applyNewLocale(Locale("es", "MX"))) }

Pierre-Loup Pagniez · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-28 10:13:28Z

Those who getting the version issue try this code ..

public static void switchLocal(Context context, String lcode, Activity activity) { if (lcode.equalsIgnoreCase("")) return; Resources resources = context.getResources(); Locale locale = new Locale(lcode); Locale.setDefault(locale); android.content.res.Configuration config = new android.content.res.Configuration(); config.locale = locale; resources.updateConfiguration(config, resources.getDisplayMetrics()); //restart base activity activity.finish(); activity.startActivity(activity.getIntent()); }

Fisher · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-03 14:26:10Z

Udhay's sample code works well. Except the question of Sofiane Hassaini and Chirag SolankI, for the re-entrance, it doesn't work. I try to call Udhay's code without restart the activity in onCreate() , before super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);. Then it is OK! Only a little problem, the menu strings still not changed to the set Locale.

 public void setLocale(String lang) { //call this in onCreate() Locale myLocale = new Locale(lang); Resources res = getResources(); DisplayMetrics dm = res.getDisplayMetrics(); Configuration conf = res.getConfiguration(); conf.locale = myLocale; res.updateConfiguration(conf, dm); //Intent refresh = new Intent(this, AndroidLocalize.class); //startActivity(refresh); //finish(); }

@AlexS, I didn't find ways to fix the problem in menu string. But found to exit the app and then reenter , the menu strings can be normally changed to the new Locale.
you mean Intent refresh = new Intent(this, ThisActivity.class); startActivity(refresh); ?
@AlexS, No! adding the new Intent() and startActivity() may make it return to the default language when restart the app. What I mean is if users exit the app and reenter the app, the menu strings can be changed to the new Locale.

user19576538 · Accepted Answer · 2022-07-19 04:52:34Z

There's a new (and better) implementation for in-app language pickers since Appcompat 1.6.0-alpha04 and later: https://developer.android.com/about/versions/13/features/app-languages#androidx-impl

Methods used in custom implementations suggested by others are deprecated in API level 25.

Mrudul Tora · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-07 19:17:53Z

 Locale locale = new Locale(langCode); Locale.setDefault(locale); Configuration configuration = context.getResources().getConfiguration(); configuration.locale = locale; configuration.setLayoutDirection(locale); // for RTL changes preferences.setLocalePref(langCode); context.getResources().updateConfiguration(configuration, context.getResources().getDisplayMetrics());

Here, langCode is the required language code. You can save the language code as string in sharedPreferences. and you can call this code super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) in onCreate.

Shiwen Huang · Accepted Answer · 2024-02-12 06:47:38Z

0

My experience: Changing language must be called before setContentView to make sure all text are changed

answered Feb 12, 2024 at 6:47

Shiwen Huang

1

1 Comment

Roll no1 Over a year ago

After chaging locale call onConfigurationChanges(configuration) which will kill recreate the activity.

Kevin Kalathiya · Accepted Answer · 2024-02-12 10:56:56Z

Try using below library:

implementation("com.github.YarikSOffice:lingver:1.3.0")

You can change language using this line:

Lingver.getInstance().setLocale(context, languageList[languageAdapter.selectedPos].code)

also restart your main activity on language Change.

Sergey Emeliyanov · Accepted Answer · 2024-03-05 09:10:25Z

Answers in this thread mostly are outdated and do not work. I've figured out that there is a more or less working solution, which is described in the Google doc. However it's quite complex and has downsides, so I'll just write down this step-by-step guide, which works for most Android versions to date:

(1) Create a file called res/xml/locales_config.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <locale-config xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"> <locale android:name="en"/> <locale android:name="de"/> <locale-config/>

(2) Add reference to this file to AndroidManifest.xml:

<manifest> ... <application ... android:localeConfig="@xml/locales_config"> </application> </manifest>

(3) Also, add a service to support Android 12 and below:

<application ... <service android:name="androidx.appcompat.app.AppLocalesMetadataHolderService" android:enabled="false" android:exported="false"> <meta-data android:name="autoStoreLocales" android:value="true" /> </service> ... </application>

(4) Add languages to app/build.gradle:

android { defaultConfig { ... resConfigs("en", "de") } }

(5) Change language in code:

AppCompatDelegate.setApplicationLocales(LocaleListCompat.forLanguageTags("de"))

To make this method work, you'll need ot ensure that following are true:

targetSdk 33 and minSdk 24 (not a big deal nowadays for most apps);
Your activities extend AppCompatActivity and have the AppCompat* theme;
AppCompatDelegate is available from implementation 'androidx.appcompat:appcompat:1.6.0'.

IMPORTANT: When accessing your String (or any other localized resource), make sure that you use Context of the Activity, and not of the Application. Strings (or other resources) you will get via. Application Context will not be affected by this method, so they will be in the system language!

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