change language programmatically in android

Change Language Programmatically in Android

Update:

Published locale-helper as a library which can be found at 
https://github.com/zeugma-solutions/locale-helper-android

While developing your awesome application, sometimes you are required to add a feature to change the language of your app on the fly. However, Android OS does not directly support this behaviour. And therefore, you need to solve this situation in some other ways.

Android by default uses the locale of the device to select the appropriate language dependent resources. And most of the time this behaviour is enough for common applications.

However, sometimes there is some business requirements that you need to implement. To do that I will outline the details of changing the language of your application programmatically on the fly.

Here is the appropriate way of changing the locale of the application:

There are some difficulties which you have to overcome to change the language programmatically.

  1. Your application will not remember your language change after it is closed or recreated during the configuration change.
  2. You should update currently visible UI properly according to the selected language.

Solution

“LocaleHelper” is the solution all you need. You just have to initialize locale on your application’s main class. After that all your language changes will persist.

After the recent changes in Android API Version 24(Nougat) we need to override attachBaseContext to reflect changes.

LocaleHelper.javA

if you call onAttach(Context context) constructor it will just set default locale of your device as the default locale of your application.

if you call onAttach(Context context, String defaultLanguage) constructor it will set the given language as the default language of your application for the first time that your application opens. After that you can change your locale by using the buttons or any other method that you provide to your users through your layout.

package com.gunhansancar.changelanguageexample.helper;
import android.annotation.TargetApi;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.SharedPreferences;
import android.content.res.Configuration;
import android.content.res.Resources;
import android.os.Build;
import android.preference.PreferenceManager;
import java.util.Locale;
/**
* This class is used to change your application locale and persist this change for the next time
* that your app is going to be used.
* <p/>
* You can also change the locale of your application on the fly by using the setLocale method.
* <p/>
* Created by gunhansancar on 07/10/15.
*/
public class LocaleHelper {
private static final String SELECTED_LANGUAGE = "Locale.Helper.Selected.Language";
public static Context onAttach(Context context) {
String lang = getPersistedData(context, Locale.getDefault().getLanguage());
return setLocale(context, lang);
}
public static Context onAttach(Context context, String defaultLanguage) {
String lang = getPersistedData(context, defaultLanguage);
return setLocale(context, lang);
}
public static String getLanguage(Context context) {
return getPersistedData(context, Locale.getDefault().getLanguage());
}
public static Context setLocale(Context context, String language) {
persist(context, language);
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
return updateResources(context, language);
}
return updateResourcesLegacy(context, language);
}
private static String getPersistedData(Context context, String defaultLanguage) {
SharedPreferences preferences = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(context);
return preferences.getString(SELECTED_LANGUAGE, defaultLanguage);
}
private static void persist(Context context, String language) {
SharedPreferences preferences = PreferenceManager.getDefaultSharedPreferences(context);
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = preferences.edit();
editor.putString(SELECTED_LANGUAGE, language);
editor.apply();
}
@TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.N)
private static Context updateResources(Context context, String language) {
Locale locale = new Locale(language);
Locale.setDefault(locale);
Configuration configuration = context.getResources().getConfiguration();
configuration.setLocale(locale);
configuration.setLayoutDirection(locale);
return context.createConfigurationContext(configuration);
}
@SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
private static Context updateResourcesLegacy(Context context, String language) {
Locale locale = new Locale(language);
Locale.setDefault(locale);
Resources resources = context.getResources();
Configuration configuration = resources.getConfiguration();
configuration.locale = locale;
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1) {
configuration.setLayoutDirection(locale);
}
resources.updateConfiguration(configuration, resources.getDisplayMetrics());
return context;
}
}
MainApplication.java

You need to override attachBaseContext and call LocaleHelper.onAttach() to initialize the locale settings in your application.

package com.gunhansancar.changelanguageexample;
import android.app.Application;
import android.content.Context;
import com.gunhansancar.changelanguageexample.helper.LocaleHelper;
public class MainApplication extends Application {
@Override
protected void attachBaseContext(Context base) {
super.attachBaseContext(LocaleHelper.onAttach(base, "en"));
}
}
MAINACTIVITY.java

Here you can find an example activity which has two buttons and three textviews on it to change the locale of the textviews on the fly.

package com.gunhansancar.changelanguageexample;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.res.Resources;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.TextView;
import com.gunhansancar.changelanguageexample.helper.LocaleHelper;
import butterknife.BindView;
import butterknife.ButterKnife;
import butterknife.OnClick;
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
@BindView(R.id.titleTextView)
TextView mTitleTextView;
@BindView(R.id.descTextView)
TextView mDescTextView;
@BindView(R.id.aboutTextView)
TextView mAboutTextView;
@BindView(R.id.toTRButton)
Button mToTRButton;
@BindView(R.id.toENButton)
Button mToENButton;
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
ButterKnife.bind(this);
setTitle(getString(R.string.main_activity_toolbar_title));
}
@Override
protected void attachBaseContext(Context base) {
super.attachBaseContext(LocaleHelper.onAttach(base));
}
@OnClick(R.id.toTRButton)
public void onChangeToTRClicked() {
updateViews("tr");
}
@OnClick(R.id.toENButton)
public void onChangeToENClicked() {
updateViews("en");
}
private void updateViews(String languageCode) {
Context context = LocaleHelper.setLocale(this, languageCode);
Resources resources = context.getResources();
mTitleTextView.setText(resources.getString(R.string.main_activity_title));
mDescTextView.setText(resources.getString(R.string.main_activity_desc));
mAboutTextView.setText(resources.getString(R.string.main_activity_about));
mToTRButton.setText(resources.getString(R.string.main_activity_to_tr_button));
mToENButton.setText(resources.getString(R.string.main_activity_to_en_button));
setTitle(resources.getString(R.string.main_activity_toolbar_title));
}
}

In your activity override attachBaseContext and call LocaleHelper.onAttach(). After that you just need to take care of the activity or fragment which includes the language change buttons. Other activities will not require any modifications at all.

You have two options to update currently visible layout:

  • First, you can just update the text or any other language dependent resources one by one.
  • Second, you can call activity.recreate() to restart currently loaded activity. Then the activity will reload the resources with the correct locale. However, if you select this option your users will notice the affect because it will close your application and you get black screen for a very small amount of time and then recreate your activity again in meanwhile.

Sample Project

For your reference, I added a sample project on github which can be found here. The sample project is targeting Nougat API 25(7.1). You can easily change the target for your needs.

If you have any question regarding to change locale of your android application, feel free to ask.

Update for new App Bundle Format

Google introduced a new App Bundle format to split apk files in smaller sizes when they’re being installed on the client devices. However, this means that we cannot have dynamic language changes in our applications.

To prevent that split we need to add extra lines in our build.gradle file inside the app folder like below.

android {
//…
//… removed for brevity
bundle {
language {
enableSplit = false
}
}
}
view raw build.gradle hosted with ❤ by GitHub

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Comments

93 responses to “Change Language Programmatically in Android”

    1. Safy Avatar
      Safy

      The current solution does not work for Android Nougat

      1. Günhan Avatar

        Hello Safy, what is not working exactly for your case? I’m adding a sample project targeting Nougat API 25 (7.1) for your information.

        1. Andraž Pajtler Avatar
          Andraž Pajtler

          He probably means that context.getResources().updateConfiguration() has been deprecated in Android API 25.

          1. Günhan Avatar

            @andrapajtler:disqus Thank you for pointing out. I updated the code and sample project to reflect recent changes in Android API.

  1. Er B S Choudhary Avatar
    Er B S Choudhary

    thanks for giving post …..it’s only change the textview something …I wan to change keyboard input language …….

    1. Günhan Avatar

      It is not possible to do that because the virtual keyboard itself is another system application. You can redirect your user to the settings page to let him/her to change the keyboard language by themselves.

  2. Kunal Parte Avatar
    Kunal Parte

    i m not able to change my application into Hindi and Urdu.
    Please help me with it –Kunal

    1. Günhan Avatar

      Hello Kunal,

      Please check that your device is supported Hindu language by going “Settings -> Language & Input”.
      If it is not the problem then you need to create a folder called “values-hi” in your “res” folder.

      Then you have to add strings.xml into values-hi folder.

      And then you can apply the codes that i shared here without any problem.

  3. Dmitry Suzdalev Avatar
    Dmitry Suzdalev

    Note that using “Configuration configuration = resources.getConfiguration(); configuration.locale = locale” is wrong, because according to documentation “the returned Configuration object should be treated as read-only”. So you should do “Configuration configuration = new Configuration(resources.getConfiguration());”, i.e. copy it instead.

  4. Attila Večerek Avatar

    Hello Günhan, I am using your code to change the language setting in my app but somehow the NavigationView does not get rewritten. Do you have any idea why?
    Thanks 🙂

    1. Günhan Avatar

      I see your problem, it is because you couldn’t update the navigation view itself.

      As i mentioned you can force the activity to recreate itself by using the correct locale however it has a very poor user experience and maybe thats why you didn’t implement that way.

      What you have to do is, you need to find the menu items in your navigationview manually by using the ids that you provided in your menu.xml
      And then you have to reassign textview texts.

      Also another option is, remove the navigationview from the drawer, and then create a new one assign it to the drawer again.

      Or another option is, it is a little bit tricky solution but, just dont use navigationview’s menu, just set your custom headerview, and in that view you manually manage your list of items. And to do that you have to create a recyclerview in which you can easily update the list of items or any other view very easily.

      Thus, i mentioned also in the post the problem is you have to manually update the current view because activity cannot update itself.

      1. Attila Večerek Avatar

        Thank you, Günhan. We just dropped this feature and let the system decide the best fit for the language 🙂

        1. Sumeet Avatar
          Sumeet

          I also got the same issue.
          As I was changing language from some other activity.
          So on the onResume() method I wrote this code :

          homeActivityBinding.navView.getMenu().clear();
          homeActivityBinding.navView.inflateMenu(R.menu.activity_home_drawer);

          And it worked out.
          I just cleared and inflated menu again.

          Its working really nice.

          1. Siddarth G Avatar
            Siddarth G

            thanks man this really worked

      2. Siddarth G Avatar
        Siddarth G

        even if we use activity.recreate all the textviews in the activity uses the new locale but not the navigation drawer items

  5. Luthfi Avatar
    Luthfi

    Hi, I used you LocaleHelper and it works only when we manually update each views’ text after changing language. But it doesn’t work when I used activity.recreate. Locale.getDefault is still correct though, but the string that was received from getResource is wrong.

    Any help?
    Thanks

    1. Günhan Avatar

      I’ll recreate your situation and check the problem.

    2. Günhan Avatar

      I tried like this in my activity.

      private void updateViews() {
      recreate();
      }

      and it works. It correctly changes the locale and updates every view on that activity.

      Maybe you somehow disabled/override the “configuration change” on your AndroidManifest or in your activity’s onCreate method.

    3. Gonzalo Avatar
      Gonzalo

      A bit late maybe, don’t forget to update your Manifest and add the android:name to application tag, with the same name of the class you created.

  6. Sami Özakyol Avatar
    Sami Özakyol

    Dil seçimini ayarlar activity de yapıyorum bir çok activity bulunuyor uygulamamda kullandığım kodda iç içe activity leri yenilemekle uğraşmamak için, dil değişikliğinden sonra uygulamayı yeniden başlatıyorum. Uygulama kill olmadığı için yeniden başladığında mainapplication kısmı tekrardan çalışmıyor ve dil değişikliği gerçekleşmiyor. Uygulamayı kill ettiğimde bir sonraki açılışta problem kalmıyor. Sorunun çözümü olarak yeniden başlatmadan evvel system.exit(0) komutunu kullandığımda uygulama sonlandığı için sorun oluşmuyor. Sizin tavsiye edebileceğiniz çözüm nedir? teşekkürler.

    1. Günhan Avatar

      Merhaba Sami,

      Backstack’de bulunan activity’ler resourcelarını önceden yüklediği için bu sorunla karşılaşmanız normal.

      İlk ve en temiz önerim eğer yapabiliyorsanız dil değişim özelliğini uygulamanızın açılış activity’si üzerinde yapmanız. Böylece bir sonra açılacak activity hali hazırda bu değişimden yararlanacaktır.

      İkinci önerim ayarlar activity’niz kapatılırken setResul() ile dil değişliği yapıldığını simgeleyecek bir resultCode set edebilirsiniz. Ve akabinde backstack2den gelecek activitylerin onActivityResult() methodu içerisinde gelen resultCode’u değerlendirip eğer dil değişimi yapmanız gerekiyorsa yine activity.recreate() yapabilirsiniz veya updateViews ile ekran üzerinde çok view bulunmuyorsa bu işlemi manuel gerçekleştirebilirsiniz.

      Uygulama çalışıyorken dil değişikliği yapılması aslında önerilen bir özellik değil ve bir çok uygulamada bu özellik bulunmuyor. Bu sebeple kullanıcı dili değiştirdiğinde uygulamayı kill etmeniz önermeyeceğim bir çözüm olsa da kullanıcıların anlayışla karşılayacağını düşünüyorum.

  7. Gonzalo Avatar
    Gonzalo

    You forget to say that “MainApplication” corresponds to the “android:name” property of the tag in Manifest.

  8. Sourabh Avatar
    Sourabh

    Is this a Java project or Android project? I’m trying to change locale on a real-time device using Java. Any suggestions you can provide?

    1. Günhan Avatar

      This is for Android projects.

  9. Simon Hrovatin Avatar
    Simon Hrovatin

    After i call method LocalHelper.setLocal() in my application the activity title (on top of the screen) doesn’t change. Other content is changed OK. If i completly close the apllication and then open it again the title is set correctly. Can you help me fix this problem so that the title will get changed on the fly?

    1. Ankush Chugh Avatar
      Ankush Chugh

      Call recreate() in current older stacked activities also updated in my case.

  10. Ankush Chugh Avatar
    Ankush Chugh

    When Phone rotates the language shifts back to default one, As we know when phone rotates, onConfigurationChanged is called.

    Hence best thing to do is:

    @Override
    public void onConfigurationChanged(Configuration newConfig) {
    super.onConfigurationChanged(newConfig);
    LocaleHelper.onAttach(getBaseContext());
    //update locale and resources, configuration on each config change
    }

    Also you don’t need to override this in each activity just do it in Application class and all done.

  11. Muhammad Ahmed AbuTalib Avatar
    Muhammad Ahmed AbuTalib

    Hello .

    I downloaded your code and created another activity. When i land on the next activity the language doesn’t change.

    Does that mean i have to put an attachbasecontext on all activities?

    1. Gunhan Avatar

      Hi @muhammadahmedabutalib:disqus,

      Yes, you have to do it for all your activities.
      It is better for you to have a BaseActivity class that you can extend your other activities. And you can do that implementation on your BaseActivity.

      1. Muhammad Ahmed AbuTalib Avatar
        Muhammad Ahmed AbuTalib

        Gunhan thanks for your reply. I read this late. What i ended up doing was removing the nougat specific code and just using the legacy version.

        When I did that I found out that i needn’t do it in all activities. Its working fine just putting it in the homeactivity.

        Now i am sitting here scared shittless of what might happen and the sideeffects. Do you have any idea how come its working fine?

  12. Tarun Avatar
    Tarun

    Hey..Just implemented Your class. Its really cool and working fine ’till marshmallow.

    But it is not working NOUGAT!!

    Can you do something for that??

    1. Gunhan Avatar

      Hi @Tarun,

      Have you tried the sample project which is targeted to API 25 (Nougat)?

      1. Tarun Avatar
        Tarun

        Hey i found the issue. Actually i had to call LocaleHelper.onAttach() in all of my activities inside attachBaseContext method.

        thanks a lot..it’s working fine now.

        One thing that i’m confused about is Location Helper is a static class. Then why do i need to call onAttach again in all of my Activities. I’m sorta confused here. It will be great if you could explain what’s happening here exactly and why do i need to call onAttach in all of my Activities???

        1. Gunhan Avatar

          LocaleHelper is kind of a factory. It returns a new Context based on your locale changes previously. Therefore, without using the newly created (localized) Context. It won’t work. So you need to attach those new context to your activities. It wasn’t like that in the previous version of Android though.

          1. Tarun Chauhan Avatar
            Tarun Chauhan

            Thanks a lot for the description. I wonder if we can directly set the locale for whole application instead of calling it every time in all activities. Maybe we could use applicationContext instead of baseContext… :/

          2. Gunhan Avatar

            You should avoid using application context inside your activities because it would have cost you potential memory leaks.

            Just create a BaseActivity and extend your activities from that BaseActivity. And implement this logic on it.

            Take advantage of inheritance right?

          3. Tarun Chauhan Avatar
            Tarun Chauhan

            Yeah….exactly….i totally forgot this…this will make it much more easier.. thanks pal ^_^

  13. Ashish Tiwari Avatar
    Ashish Tiwari

    I have multiple activities and I am setting data statically and dynamically (from API). I used your code it works good, but sometimes it doesn’t work. It does not change the selected languge. I am restarting only one activity where I am clicking to change the language. Rest activities are setting resources automatically. I only have override attacheBaseContext

    @Override
    protected void attachBaseContext(Context newBase) {
    super.attachBaseContext(LocaleHelper.onAttach(newBase));
    }

    Also implemented Application class code that you specified.

    Please suggest what should I do.

    I am cheking in Android 7.0

  14. Maninder Singh Avatar
    Maninder Singh

    It is not changing the layout direction according to locale. If I change the language from English to Urdu then the direction does not change to RTL

    1. Gunhan Avatar

      Hi @disqus_YnYOiZn2ls:disqus,

      I updated the the code like you mentioned added support for LayoutDirection.

      By your description and my understanding is that the problem seems you need to reload your current activity layout to be refreshed.

      As I mentioned in the article you could potentially use “activity.recreate()” method. Beware that it will flicker the screen for a second.

      1. Maninder Singh Avatar
        Maninder Singh

        Hi Gunhan,

        I have already recreated the activity but it is not changing the layout direction.
        When I switch between English and Urdu multiple times it is not changing the direction as expected. I am trying it on device having android 7.1.1

        1. Maninder Singh Avatar
          Maninder Singh

          Hi @gunhansancar:disqus,

          Please help in resolving the issue.

          1. Gunhan Avatar

            @disqus_YnYOiZn2ls:disqus Can you share simple version of your project so that I can have a look?

          2. Maninder Singh Avatar
            Maninder Singh

            @gunhansancar:disqus You can download the source code from below link.
            https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7d2DFeulFPWQzFGMHBxZlNxcEE/view?usp=sharing
            I have also asked a question on Stackoverflow : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44515264/android-rtl-issue-in-api-24-and-higher-on-locale-change

          3. Gunhan Avatar

            @disqus_YnYOiZn2ls:disqus I answered on Stackoverflow. Please take a look, I believe it will solve your issue.

          4. Maninder Singh Avatar
            Maninder Singh

            @gunhansancar:disqus sorry for the late response. I have tried your solution and it is working fine. Thanks for your help.
            Please update your post with some generic solution for RTL issue. Thanks again.

  15. Joao Neto Avatar
    Joao Neto

    Hi Gunhan, I’m sorry to add another voice to the chorus but I can’t get your solution to work either on Nougat 7.1. I’ve done everything like you posted but instead o changing the labels I do a recreate of my activity. When reloading the activity goes through the attachBaseContext method with the super.attachBaseContext(LocaleHelper.onAttach(base)); but it keeps showing the default labels. Have you tested your solution with the recreate?

    I had tried a similar solution previously but with no success also. I even opened a question on Stackoverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44554626/android-n-change-locale-in-runtime

    Thanks very much for your help.

    Edit: I actually found the problem. I was using full locale codes like “en_US”. It only works with the two char codes “en”,”fr”, etc

    1. Gunhan Avatar

      Hi @disqus_3S4KUhcukU:disqus

      Just to let you know that this solution is working fine. It’s been used in production apps without any problem. I can assure you.

      I’ve also tried with recreate() of course, and you can check out the example project and see the actual results.

      Documentation says that you should use language parameter as “An ISO 639 alpha-2 or alpha-3 language code”

      1. Joao Neto Avatar
        Joao Neto

        Thanks Gunhan. It was after all a bad case of RTFM!

  16. Phearun Avatar
    Phearun

    Hello Gunhan, is that possible to change the number to its languages? Like 1234567890 to ១២៣៤៥៦៧៨៩០ something like that !
    Best regard.

    1. Gunhan Avatar

      @Phearun Hi,
      The locale changes are done manually, so you can define a string in strings.xml and your language strings.xml then you can achieve it that way.

      values/strings.xml
      12345678
      values-xx/strings.xml
      ១២៣៤៥៦៧៨៩០

      So in your layout or activity you can use it through R.string.telephone_number.

      I might be understood your question wrong but I don’t think any other possible question that you might have asked.

      By the way which language is this?

      1. Phearun Avatar
        Phearun

        Thank for quick reply.
        In this case, I want to change calendar number language to khmer language as I do SimpleDateFormat (“dd/MMM/yyyy HH:mm:ss a”).
        Ex: 21/Jun/2017 4:05 PM to khmer ២១/មិថុនា/២០១៧ ៤:០៥​ ព្រឹក. Hope you understand my purpose. thanks

        1. Gunhan Avatar

          Hi, SimpleDateFormat takes Locale as argument like so:

          Locale current = new Locale(LocaleHelper.getLanguage(this));
          SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(“dd/MMM/yyyy HH:mm:ss a”, current);

          String dateTimeString = dateFormat.format(new Date());

          mAboutTextView.setText(dateTimeString);

          This way you can achieve your goal.

          1. Phearun Avatar
            Phearun

            Hi Gunhan, i’ve tried your solution and the result is
            21/មិថុនា/2017 21:21:03 ល្ងាច. is it possible to change even number language too?

  17. SACHIN MASKE Avatar
    SACHIN MASKE

    Hi Gunhan, not working for persian language below Android N.

    1. Gunhan Avatar

      Could you describe what is not working? I’d like to reproduce your issue. Is it not updating the UI? Is it not saving the latest selected version? Did you apply as in the article? Do you mean by Left-To-Right or Right-To-Left layout issue? It is too generic to say it is not working.

      1. SACHIN MASKE Avatar
        SACHIN MASKE

        I did the same as in the article, the view alignment goes from LEFT-TO-RIGHT as required for Persian(Iran), but the language displaying is in English not in PERSIAN for Lower versions(<N) only. I have included string.xml files for both English and Persian (Iran).

        1. Gunhan Avatar

          For RTL LTR issue, I had already given an answer on stackoverflow. Can you check that if it is the same issue and apply the given solution and let us know

          https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44515264/android-rtl-issue-in-api-24-and-higher-on-locale-change

          1. SACHIN MASKE Avatar
            SACHIN MASKE

            Thanks for immediate help Gunhan, but issue is the language as I trying to set Persian (fa), the language doesn’t set it is showing English only for lower devices.

          2. Gunhan Avatar

            Hi I just tried for you and it seems working fine. I tested on API level 16 emulator. the important part is you should have a folder inside “res” directory “res/values-fa/strings.xml” for Persian”res/values/strings.xml” for english. You might be updated the files in wrong place or you forget to change button click event to “updateViews(“fa”);” And also please apply solution for RTL LTR as well at the end.

          3. SACHIN MASKE Avatar
            SACHIN MASKE

            Thanks Gunhan I really appreciate your help, I was trying to implement PERSIAN language specifically for IRAN , so I just forget to add country code for IRAN in locale

            Locale locale = new Locale(“fa”,”IR”);

            Thanks for the help. (:

  18. jahnzeb Avatar
    jahnzeb

    heyyy
    gud tutorial
    but i have a problem

  19. rohit bhoite Avatar
    rohit bhoite

    Hi Gunhan,I am using this tutorial and its working for activity contents but not for activity title.Do I have to set it programatically?

    1. Gunhan Avatar

      @rohit_bhoite:disqus Yes, you need to call setTitle() programmatically whenever you change the language.

  20. Mayur Prasad Avatar
    Mayur Prasad

    Hi Gunhan, i have to add attachBaseContext in all activities?

    1. Gunhan Avatar

      @mayur_prasad:disqus Yes, indeed. Though just create a BaseActivity and do this inside of it then extend other activities using BaseActivity which makes your life easier.

      1. Mayur Prasad Avatar
        Mayur Prasad

        Thank you for your response:) and a great tutorial.

  21. Gunhan Avatar

    Hey @siddarthg:disqus, it seems you’ve already solved your problem. Some of the view components from the core android doesn’t follow the expected localisation rules. So it’s better to invalidate them in a way and rebind again.

    1. Siddarth G Avatar
      Siddarth G

      Yes, thanks for the reply

  22. Arjun Avatar
    Arjun

    Hi Gunhan,
    I followed the steps completely. but cant achieve the result. is there anything else i need to config with app or studio? i have already added locale|orientation in activity.

    1. Gunhan Avatar

      If you can share sample of your app I can take a look otherwise it is hard to see what’s missing. Or can you share what did you do for example?

      1. Arjun Avatar
        Arjun

        I’m doing this on a click of a view.
        LocaleHelper.setLocale(this, “ta”);
        this.recreate();
        with attachbsecontext in the application class as well as acitivity is already done.

        1. Arjun Avatar
          Arjun

          Hi Gunhan,
          did you sorted out the issue?

          1. Gunhan Avatar

            You need to have a folder called “values-ta” folder inside src/main/res folder and place your strings.xml there.

            If you share the project on Github or Bitbucket I can take a look at the problem, otherwise you need to figure out what you’re missing.

            For example can you confirm that with other languages it is working fine? So we can know that “ta” language is not the problem.

          2. Arjun Avatar
            Arjun

            No help with other languages also. Is values package addition need to be done manually for every language or the system is supposed to automatically convert my textview’s strings?

          3. Gunhan Avatar

            So when you set the new language normally system will pick that up for the next activity creation. But if you restart the activity or reload the textview manually after the change you can observe the changes without restarting.

            I suggest you to download the sample app from github(the link is at the end of the article) and try to add your “ta” language files there to see if it is working. Then gradually move the code to your project source without missing any steps.

          4. Arjun Avatar
            Arjun

            I had tried with your code and neither my language nor few other languages had worked. I think i need to include “values” folder like yours or install some repository for lang change!

          5. Gunhan Avatar

            From your comment it seems that you even don’t have the values folder for your language placed. you need to create a folder on “path-to-your-project/app/src/main/res/values-ta/” then in that folder you need to create and xml file called “strings.xml”.

            You can also do that directly from “Android Studio” click “strings.xml” file then on the right hand side there is a button called “Open editor” then click the “Earth Icon” and select your fancy language.

            After that place your localized strings there.

            Then everything gonna work.

            p.s: You last sentence kind of bad however maybe some other people might find it useful that’s why I’m trying to help you to find your missing part.

          6. Arjun Avatar
            Arjun

            Hey Gunhan, Its not to offend you. i was just referring to yours as yours code. Hope i din hurt you if not, sorry for that.
            None has mentioned the need to create values strings, that’s why queried whether i need to do it myself.
            So, i need to add my strings on my own. Ok. Thank you man. Your help is highly appreciated. btw, its not just a fancy language its earth’s first language.

          7. Gunhan Avatar

            It’s all good. Glad it helped 🙂 I just checked throughly and couldn’t find “ta” code on Android Studio, that’s why I wrote it like that. I’m now checking on Google. Oh it says it’s Tamil. My knowledge about other languages is very limited though.

  23. Sarfaraz Raj Avatar
    Sarfaraz Raj

    Hi,

    Recreating the activity does not work for me. I am writing my code in Xamarin but it is exact replica of the above code. Can you help me?

    1. Gunhan Avatar

      Hi @Sarfaraz Raj, I’m not using Xamarin so I don’t know what might be the reason but If you could give some more details like which Android version, which part of the UI e.g. Toolbar, nav menu etc. or just a regular textview? If I can replicate it on native Android app I’d like to help you out.

      1. Sarfaraz Raj Avatar
        Sarfaraz Raj

        Unfortunately it works on Android native but not on Xamarin.

  24. mudasser Avatar
    mudasser

    Hi,
    I want to change language for whole application which include multiple screens what should I do?
    BTW great tutorial.

    1. Gunhan Avatar

      You should update your Application class with the given above. Then you need to have a BaseActivity class that all other activities inherit from. On BaseActivity apply the codes for Activity.

      1. Srikanth Chowdary Kancheti Avatar
        Srikanth Chowdary Kancheti

        Hi Gunhan,

        I am trying to implement language change by using your code, but when i go back from current activity its not reflecting the changes in onResume() of already opened activities. I am using the BaseActivity which is extends by all other activities.

        Could you please help me on this. 🙂

        1. Gunhan Avatar

          For already opened Activities, you have to manually update(TextFields, Images etc like calling updateViews() in the example), or restart, or finish them. Otherwise they are not aware of the fact that BaseContext is changed. You have to tell them one by one that the language is changed and update your views. So it becomes very complex. I think the easiest solution is use an Intent to clear all of the previously opened activities (like using a flag called FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP). And that way your users would end up on the home screen with a brand new locale.

          1. Srikanth Chowdary Kancheti Avatar
            Srikanth Chowdary Kancheti

            Ok, I will try to convince the client to close the app on language change. Thanks Gunhan!!!

  25. Zara Avatar
    Zara

    Hi, I want to change language for whole application. I followed the steps but my app has fragments and don’t work on that way. Could you please help me?
    I have class BaseActivity which extend Activity and it has attachBaseContext(Context base) overriding.
    In MaineApplication which extend AppCompatActivity I have override attachBaseContext(Context base).
    And in fragment I have updateViews(String language).
    All my activity extend BaseActivity or have attachBaseContext overriding.
    When I put this.recreate() in all activity in onCreate() my app crash.
    Do I need put something in fragments or don’t? How to change language in app with activity and fragment. Which part of code I need put in activity and which part in fragment?

    1. Gunhan Avatar

      Hi @Zara,
      If your activity is crashing when you call recreate() there must be some issue about how you instantiated your Fragment. Please take a look at https://gunhansancar.com/best-practice-to-instantiate-fragments-with-arguments-in-android/

      If that’s not the issue then please provide your logs and some kind of sample project on github so that I can understand the problem because without seeing what you’ve done, It is extremely difficult to understand your issue.

  26. Swapnil Sakhare Avatar
    Swapnil Sakhare

    Hi Gunhan can u help me i am trying to run it on oreo but its unable to show changes in other version it works well

    1. Gunhan Avatar

      Hi @disqus_wXlkw7HQP8:disqus, I used API 26 Oreo Pixel 2 emulator and it’s working fine. Did you applied everything stated? If so then can you provide some kind of sample code so that I can see what’s missing?

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