The most popular and used instant messaging application in the world is available in more than 60 languages. It is logical that this is the case, since it is a powerful communication tool. That is why one might think, from the outset, that change the language in WhatsApp It should be a natural choice. However, it is actually not as simple as it seems.
There are many reasons why it could be interesting to change the language on WhatsApp: to learn a new language or to communicate with other users who do not speak our language, etc. In this post we will analyze if this is possible and how we can do it.
Well, the first thing you should know is that it is not worth wasting time looking for the option to change the language or similar in the settings of the application itself. That option we are looking for does not exist. So, does that mean that it is not possible to change the language on WhatsApp? The answer is no. Not in Spain.
The truth is that In WhatsApp versions from other countries, this option is available. These are usually countries where there are several recognized official languages of international scope. In CanadaFor example, you can have the application in English or French. The same happens in Switzerland, a country in which we can use the app in German, French and even Italian. Even so, in these countries WhatsApp cannot be used in other external languages, such as English in the Swiss case.
In Spain, despite the existence of co-official languages, this possibility is not contemplated. According to the policy of the popular messaging app, for two simple reasons: the other Spanish languages other than Spanish (Catalan, Basque and Galician) are only spoken in part of the country, not in its entirety; On the other hand, these languages are not international in scope as, for example, English, French or German are.
But, despite everything, you should not resign yourself to not being able to change the language on WhatsApp. There's a trick that we can try and that always works.
Change phone language
Yes, this is a very practical solution. If our WhatsApp is configured in Spanish and we want to change it, for example, to English, we will have to change the system language. Before taking this step, it is important to keep in mind that from that moment on all the elements that are part of the smartphone's operating system will be in the new chosen language, without exceptions.
Here we explain how to make this change on an Android phone and an iPhone:
On Android
- First we go to Settings menu Of the device.
- Then we select "System settings".
- From the different options shown, we choose «Language and region».
- Next, click on the button "Add a language".
- Finally, after selecting the language we want, we must pay attention to Pressed the icon with the 3 horizontal stripes for a few seconds and then move the chosen language to the first position, to make it the main language of the device.
On iPhone
- To start, let's go to setup menu.
- From there, we go to the menu "General".
- Then we select "Language and region" and then "iPhone language".
- Finally, we choose the desired language from the list and click on the option "Change language".
Changing the WhatsApp language is possible in Android 13
Finally, we must mention a novelty that corrects everything that until now was valid regarding this issue: Changing the WhatsApp language from the application itself will be possible in Android 13, the latest version of Android. One more reason to update the version on your phone (if this is a compatible model, of course). To change the language, these are the steps to follow:
- First we go to the main screen of WhatsApp and click on the Option menu (the well-known icon of the three dots).
- Then we select "Settings".
Then, on the app configuration screen, click on the option «Application language». - Finally, in the drop-down menu with the list of available languages, we just have to select the one we want.
other alternatives
If we do not have Android 13 or it simply does not seem like a good idea to change the language of our mobile phone only through WhatsApp, there are other alternatives that are worth considering.
One of them is to use an automatic translation program that we can apply to WhatsApp. One of the most used for this type of tasks is GBoard, Through this solution the popular translator is launched Google Translate, which we can use directly from the app.
Finally, we must consider the convenience of switch from WhatsApp to Telegram, since this application does allow changing the language through its settings. But of course, that is a decision that affects many more things. For example, it is most likely that we will not find many of our WhatsApp contacts there.