Localisation
Timelee in 32 languages, including right-to-left
A reminder that reaches you in a language you have to translate is a reminder you read a second too slowly. Timelee is a multilingual reminder app in the full sense: the interface, the emails and the spoken phone call all follow the language you chose.
Most apps are translated up to the point where it gets expensive
The interface gets done first, because it is the part a reviewer sees. Then the work stops. The confirmation email arrives in English. The notification title is English with your own words dropped into the middle of it. The automated call, if there is one, speaks English at somebody who did not choose it.
That split is not a small cosmetic problem, because the parts that get skipped are the parts that reach you when you are not looking at the app. A reminder is at its most useful at exactly the moment you are least able to do a translation in your head — half asleep, driving, mid-shift, or handing a phone to a parent.
Timelee is a multilingual reminder app localised into 32 languages on all four of the places it runs: the Android app, the iOS app, the web dashboard and the server that sends things to you. The language you choose is carried through to what the server produces, so the email and the spoken phone call come in your language rather than the server's.
Four languages are laid out right to left, not just translated
Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu and Persian are not a font change. The whole layout mirrors: the direction of the list, where a back arrow points, which side a checkbox sits on, how a time range reads, where a progress indicator fills from. An app that translates the words and leaves the layout untouched is an app that reads as broken to anyone who uses it daily.
Timelee treats those four as first-class layouts rather than as a translation with a flag next to it. That work is done in the apps and on the web dashboard alike, so a reader does not get a mirrored phone and a left-to-right desktop.
- Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu and Persian mirror the full layout
- The same treatment on Android, iOS and the web
- Numerals, dates and times follow the locale rather than the interface language alone
- Right-to-left is a layout, not a font substitution
How far the language actually goes
The test of a localised app is not the settings screen. It is everything that leaves the device and comes back to you later.
The interface, on every platform
Android, iOS and the web dashboard are translated from the same catalogue, so a term does not change meaning when you move from your phone to a laptop.
The spoken phone call
The call that Timelee places reads its text in your language rather than defaulting to the server's. That is the part most apps never get to.
What the server sends you
Messages generated on the server follow your language too, instead of arriving in whatever the backend was written in.
Notification text
The words around your reminder — the sentence the lock screen builds around the title you typed — are translated as whole sentences, because word order is not the same everywhere.
Grocery search in three languages at once
The bucket and grocery item catalogue can be searched in English, Hinglish and Hindi, and the item keeps the name in the language you picked.
Useful across a household
The person who sets up the reminders and the person they reach do not have to read the same language, which matters when you are supporting a parent.
Where the difference actually shows up
- A 06:00 medication reminder read at a glance, without translating first
- A phone call to a relative who does not read the language you set the reminder in
- A shared reminder arriving with somebody who works in a different language to you
- A right-to-left reader who can use the app one-handed because the controls are on the correct side
- A grocery list built by searching in the language you think in rather than the one the catalogue was written in
- A phone you hand to somebody else, knowing what they will see will make sense to them
Where the 32 languages apply
| Feature | Android | iOS | Web |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interface translated into 32 languages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Right-to-left layout for ar, he, ur and fa | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Notification and alarm text localised | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Spoken phone call in your language | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Grocery item search in English, Hinglish and Hindi | Yes | Yes | Yes |
All four places Timelee runs are translated from the same catalogue, including the backend that sends the email and speaks the call.
This website is English-only for now
The product is localised into 32 languages. These marketing pages are not — they are published in English while the app itself is not. It would be easy to leave that unsaid, so it is worth saying plainly: if you are reading this in a second language, the app you are reading about will not make you do that. Sign in and set your language, and the interface, the emails and the calls follow it.
A reminder in your second language costs you a second you may not have.
The moment a reminder arrives is the moment you are least equipped to translate anything.
Set your language once and let everything follow it
The app, the emails and the spoken call all take the same setting, on whichever device you signed in from.
Keep reading
- About TimeleeWhat the product is, and who builds it.
- Timelee for AndroidLocalised, including the four right-to-left layouts.
- Timelee for iPhoneThe same catalogue, the same 32 languages.
- Timelee on the webSet it up on a laptop, in your own language.
- Security at TimeleeWhat we do, described without badges.