Until recently, our iOS app could only display the language to which your device was set. So if your device is set to English but you wanted to use the iNat app in French, that was not possible. But with updates to iOS, you can now choose a language for iNat which is different than the device’s main language.
I’m not sure in exactly which version of iOS this became possible, but I think it’s at least iOS 13. Currently my device is running 13.3.1.
First, you will need to have at least two preferred languages set for your device. If you already do, go to step 5. If not, start at step 1.
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Go to the Settings app of your device, then go to General and then Language & Region.
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If the screen looks like this (only one language listed), you’ll need to add the second language.
- To do that, tap on “Other Languages…”, then select the language you want to use, eg French:
- Once you add that language to your phone, your phone will switch to it and you’ll see that you now have a list of preferred languages:
You can go ahead and switch back to your first language if you want, it’s up to you. The main thing is that you have more than one language listed here.
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Go to the first screen of the Settings app of your device, then scroll down until you see iNaturalist. Tap on it.
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You’ll see “Preferred Language”. Tap on that and choose the language in which you want to view iNaturalist.
- Open in the iNaturalist app. You might have to refresh or log in and log out, but it should switch to your preferred language if iNaturalist supports it:
Note that if you have chosen a place for your common names, this will not affect that choice, so you’ll see still common names from the place you’ve chosen on the website.
