With the reach of the Internet this one message can connect thousands of people across the globe, crossing a single gulf to bring out friends, family, and colleagues from all over. It is truly an amazing technology, but it inevitably presents one familiar problem. Whatever language it’s in, you’re trying to work on WhatsApp Web on your desk at the desktop, and a message comes through in Spanish, German, or Chinese. You try to quickly copy it, create a new browser tab, paste it into a translator, then back to the chat. This takes too much time, and it stops your flow. That leads to the inevitable question. Is there a way to simply zap web for translating messages in real-time? Right inside the messaging interface of WhatsApp Web?
The Built-in Limitation of WhatsApp Web
First of all, it would be helpful to note that WhatsApp Web and the main WhatsApp application don’t have any native, built-in feature for automatic translations of message body texts. Whatsapp’s parent company Meta has always prioritized end-to-end encryption, a security architecture intended to ensure only you and the person you’re talking to can read what’s being sent. If implemented at the most extreme level, adding a translation service inside the app could undermine that encryption if handled poorly as it would require sending messages data to external servers, so the search to zap web for translations will ultimately come down to third party solutions and clever trickery.
Browser Power-Ups: The Easiest Way to Zap Web for Translation
The most common and easy way to zap web in order to translate it in real-time is through the power of your internet browser: Extensions are little software programs that can change or customize the functionality of a website. If you are using Chrome (or Microsoft Edge or any other browser using Chromium) the answer will likely just be a few mouse clicks away in the Web Store
There are programs called extensions like WhatsApp Web Translator (in this case) or Toucan for that purpose. They do this by working quietly within your WhatsApp Web session. The usual way is to place a little “Translate” button beneath messages in any foreign language. Just hit this button and the translated message will appear in the chat window itself. Some advanced extensions can even be programmed to grab web messages (and translate them) without any clicks at all. Pretty much just like the chat box. The other benefit of this method is that it requires no additional software, it just works with your browser to do the translation for you in WhatsApp Web.
The Copy-Paste Dance with Web Translators
If you are not fond of installing browser extensions (a valid criticism both for permissions and privacy) – the manual method is still a safe, but slower method. If there is a message you need to translate on WhatsApp Web you can simply double-click it to highlight it (Ctrl+C or Cmd+C) and then go to a web translation service such as Google Translate or Deep.
While this method obviously does not zap the web in an integrated fashion, it is universally usable (you don’t really need to download any new software for this) and often you can just have a dedicated tab open with your preferred translator for quick pastes. The main disadvantage is the halting of the flow of conversation, causing real-time chat to feel like less real-time.
Important Considerations Before You Zap Web
Before you rush into swatting the web with translation extensions there are a few things you should consider before. First it’s always worth always checking the privacy policy of any extension you get installed on your web browser. What data will it access and where will the data be transmitted? A reliable translation extension should only work with the message text that you have in mind for translating.
Second point is to keep in mind that machine translation is obviously not perfect. Although many services like Google Translate have improved a lot, there are still subtle differences in meaning and vocabulary that can be lost when machines translate. Use the machine translation to guide you along to find the gist of a message, not some perfect word-for-word translation.
The Future of Integrated Translation
As the demand grows for this feature, that might be a good indication that Meta is certainly working on an official solution. We could well see someday a default translate option built into WhatsApp Web that works in a way that fully maintains end-to-end encryption (maybe this means translating on the user’s device). Until then, browser extensions are the best tool to break the web’s web browser filters and dispel language barriers on WhatsApp Web, turn an insulted (multilingual) chat into a smooth global chat.
