Plataforma per la Llengua has managed to persuade Facebook to start translating its instant messaging service, Messenger, into Catalan. Until now, although Facebook has been offered in our language (despite certain shortcomings), the messaging tool did not allow it. The organisation promoting the Catalan language is celebrating this progress, although it is still a modest advance, as many elements remain untranslated. Now Plataforma per la Llengua is asking Meta, the owner of Messenger and Facebook, to follow WhatsApp's lead and also incorporate Catalan into Instagram and Threads, as it has been demanding for years.
For now, Catalan has begun appearing in the desktop version of Messenger (on computers) and the Android mobile application (but not yet on iOS). The app is automatically displayed in Catalan if the user has Facebook in the language. Plataforma per la Llengua had been demanding that the company translate the service for many years and it was eagerly awaiting any small linguistic change in the tool. Until this month, Messenger was offered in 32 languages on the internet and 40 in the app. Our language was not offered despite the fact that Catalan is the 35th biggest language in terms of internet content, according to W3C data from January.
The incorporation of Catalan into most of the messaging service icons should be a first step towards all Meta services being offered in Catalan. This is now Plataforma per la Llengua's demand to the company, particularly for Threads and for Instagram, one of the most used social networks in the world (with more than 1,000 million users). The organisation finds it particularly surprising that the photo-based network excludes Catalan considering that Meta's other major network, Facebook, has been offered in Catalan since 2008, and that its main instant messaging service, WhatsApp, has been in Catalan since 2012.
30% of Catalans without Instagram would join if Catalan were included
In 2022, Plataforma per la Llengua published a survey, which it had commissioned from the company GESOP, concluding that 2.5 million Catalan Instagram users(more than half of the users in Catalonia) would set up their account in Catalan if the application included the language. The survey also revealed that 30% of those who do not have Instagram would get it if the platform were in Catalan.
The survey commissioned by Plataforma per la Llengua also concluded that 25% of Catalan-speaking users in Catalonia use the English version of the application, while, for Spanish-speakers, who have Instagram in their language, the percentage drops to 6%. This demonstrated that the version of the application in the official language of the Spanish State - Spanish - does not meet the preferences of a significant segment of Catalan-speaking consumers. Of the total Catalan population using Instagram at the time of the survey, 13% had it set up in English.
Another trend revealed by the GESOP survey was that, in general terms, the predisposition to configure Instagram in Catalan increased with the age of respondents. The only exception was in the younger age-groups: citizens between 16 and 29 years old were more in favour of configuring Instagram in Catalan than those aged between 30 and 44. Plataforma per la Llengua had already observed this correlation between age and language choice with mobile phone operating systems.
For the organisation, the data from this survey shows the language sensitivity of Catalan-speaking consumers and the increase in users that the incorporation of Catalan would mean for Instagram and Meta. For this reason, Plataforma per la Llengua is calling for the full translation of Messenger into Catalan, and for all Meta tools to be offered in our language.
