Earlier this month Instagram announced that the network now boasts over 500 million users, of which an astounding 300 million are active daily users. The photo-sharing network are aware that with a global user base of that scale, the accessibility of content is key to continual growth, and are responding by installing a translation tool to allow users to better understand each other.
It’s becoming clear that Instagram are well aware of the important position that their network has begun to take in the world of social media, and are consistently responding with features which cement that status. The network have announced that an auto-translation tool for comments and descriptions will be added in the coming month.
Users will be able to create an auto-generated translation by clicking a ‘see translation’ link below text. This translation will be machine-generated to a user’s chosen language, which can be changed in the user’s in-app settings. However, Instagram have advised users that certain older comments, and languages that aren’t detectable may not be supported.
Translation capabilities are nothing new for larger networks. Twitter and Facebook both offer auto-translation to some extent, in order to allow users to keep pace with users across the globe. When you consider their recent milestone, it’s about time Instagram brought their communicative capabilities in line with rival networks
When the feature hits network-wide in July, it will represent a significant shift for Instagram. Previously, while users were able to engage with a foreign user’s content, they were unable to interact with them if they didn’t share knowledge of a singular language, and so growth was halted. Now users will be able to see exactly what these people think of their craft hotdog picture, and respond in kind! This kind of accessibility is integral to building social network user-bases at a global scale.
