Mozilla’s Firefox web browser supports native language translations since Firefox 118 in desktop and Android versions of the browser. This feature, called Firefox Translations, supports additional languages now.
One of the main distinguishing factors between Mozilla’s implementation of a translate feature in Firefox and that in other browsers is that Firefox’s runs locally.
Translations happen on the local device. All that is required for that is the downloading of a language pack for each language. Google, Microsoft, and other browser makers use cloud-based translation services. The consequence here is that information is submitted to company servers. Google and Microsoft know about the text that gets translated. Not a problem for some, but if you value privacy, you may prefer Mozilla’s implementation.
Firefox Translations improvements
Firefox Stable supported a good dozen languages up until now. These were Bulgarian, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish and Portuguese.
The Estonian language is added to the list of fully supported languages.
Mozilla added support for additional languages, but these are limited to being translated. In other words, Firefox cannot translate other languages into these languages yet.
The additional languages are Finish, Greek, Hungarian, Russian, Slovenian, Turkish and Ukrainian.
Support for these new languages is added remotely to Firefox, an update of the browser is not required. You should see the languages listed already on about:preferences#general under Translations.
Support for additional languages in development
Mozilla is working on adding support for additional languages to Firefox. Users who run development versions of Firefox gain access to additional languages or capabilities.
The focus is on European languages, with Persian (Farsi) being the exception.
Dev users get full access to Czech and Persian (Farsi). Additionally, support for translating Catalan, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk) are also available. Lastly, support for translating languages into Hungarian, Russian, and Ukrainian is also available.
Closing Words
Firefox’s translation feature supports many European languages already. Several are still missing, including Danish, Swedish, and Croatian among others.
Support for non-European languages is lacking severely at this stage. These still require the use of other translation services at the time of writing and the foreseeable future.
Now You: which translation service do you use? (via Sören Hentzschel)