Build 1142 adds new languages/localization to the apk?

Solar2D Daily Builds and Public Releases
#21

Hi Nob Studio,

good to know I’m not the only one.

I just think that the interest in android development among pro users is ver small. If there are few people using corona for Android they seem not to notice the languages  added.

It is a corona issue, I’ve double checked with previous builds and nothing like that happened.

I only have few testers currently and none of them use spanish or hebrew language, so I’m not sure if this change has any impact on users, but I would feel a bit cheated if someone promised me a localized product [especially if it is paid, like in your case] and would not deliver.

#22

Hi all,

I have an official answer for you. The reason the Spanish and Hebrew languages are now listed as “supported” under Google Play is because we’ve upgraded to the newest version of the Facebook SDK on Android, which includes support for those languages. But just because those languages are listed as supported under the “localizations” list does not mean Google Play will distribute your app in those countries… you would actually have to opt-in to those countries under the “Pricing and Distribution” section.

Hope this helps,

Brent

#23

Brent: but it means google play users will see that developer marked their app as localized in these languages.

This is kind of a lie.

#24

Hi Krystian,

Perhaps I’m missing something: where is the localization specified on the Google Play page for an app?

For example, Angry Birds:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rovio.angrybirds&hl=en

#25

As far as I’ve seen, Google Play does not list what languages an app supports to end-users.  For example, check out Angry Birds on Google Play…

   https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rovio.angrybirds

The newest Facebook SDK for Android now provides dialogs that can be displayed within your app and that dialog supports the languages that you’ve listed above (including English of course).  So, if the device is set up under a Spanish or Hebrew locale, then the Facebook dialog will display text with that language.

On Google Play, you have to opt-in to what countries you plan on distributing your app to.  You do this in the Google Play Developer Console under the “Pricing and Distribution” section of that website.  This will generate a localized version of your Google Play app webpage… not the locales/languages that your app supports.  So, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

#26

Here’s on samsung apps:

http://apps.samsung.com/venus/topApps/topAppsDetail.as?productId=000000521404&srchClickURL=|@sn=SAPS|@qh=-1579003731|@qid=SAPS.SRCH|@q=angry|@tot=56|@idx=0|@doc=G00010328791|@title=nil#

Yup, can’t see it on google play, although I am sure it was there in previous versions of the store.

#27

Can you not edit the app’s information on Samsung’s app store?

#28

Hello Joshua,

I cannot make any changes to my existing app, but when uploading new one I will be sure to check it out.

Thanks,

K

#29

Here’s my perspective.  It’s actually normal for 3rd party libraries to include translated resources.  Because of this, it would be bad of the app store to assume that the entire app supports a language just because it happens to find one translated resource within the app.  Google Play appears to handle this correctly.  I think the Google Play Developer Console is just listing out the languages it has discovered within the APK to help those developers who upload multiple localized APKs… especially for apps that have localized image and audio files because that would cut down on the APK file size for different regions.

Native Android developers would typically accept 3rd party libraries such as Facebook as-is, including the localized resources, without modifying them.  If the rest of the native Android development world doesn’t have a problem with this, I don’t see any reason why we should either.

But that said, I am interested to know if the Samsung app store allows you to control the languages supported on the app store page.  I personally don’t have a Samsung developer account to check this out for myself.  So, if you can let me know then that would be great.

#30

Do we have a means to modify/add languages in the build.settings or elsewhere?

#31

There is no equivalent to iOS’ supported language list on Android.  Not even when doing native Android development.  So, no, there is no way to do this.  How it works is that the Android app store queries for all localized resource files within the APK under a special “res” directory, but the references to those localized files are created via the Android SDK build system by doing Java code generation.  The only way to do this is via Corona Enterprise and building via the the Android SDK, but doing so means creating localized files that are not cross-platform with iOS… and it’s not really worth the added cost an complexity on your end for something so minor.

The best solution is to just list the languages your app supports on your summary page in the app store.

#32

Do we have a means to modify/add languages in the build.settings or elsewhere?

#33

There is no equivalent to iOS’ supported language list on Android.  Not even when doing native Android development.  So, no, there is no way to do this.  How it works is that the Android app store queries for all localized resource files within the APK under a special “res” directory, but the references to those localized files are created via the Android SDK build system by doing Java code generation.  The only way to do this is via Corona Enterprise and building via the the Android SDK, but doing so means creating localized files that are not cross-platform with iOS… and it’s not really worth the added cost an complexity on your end for something so minor.

The best solution is to just list the languages your app supports on your summary page in the app store.