Reddit is bringing AI-powered translation to India, starting with Hindi; Bengali to be added soon

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Reddit on Tuesday announced machine-learning-powered translation in India as part of its effort to expand the user base of its English-only social network. Initially, Reddit is allowing users to translate posts into Hindi using AI-powered machine learning. Eventually, Bengali translation will also be added in the coming months.

Reddit first introduced the AI-powered translation tool early last year, adding a feature that allowed users to translate posts into French in France. Later that year, the company expanded the feature to 35 new countries, including Spain, Brazil, Germany, the Philippines, and other countries across Latin America.

One reason Reddit is focusing on this AI-based translation feature is to reach more users beyond those who are proficient in English, particularly in a country as large and diverse as India. In India, Hindi is spoken by 528.3 million people, mostly in the northern part of the country, representing 43.63 percent of the population.

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Reddit’s new AI translation feature allows users to configure both posts and comments to auto-translate from a community’s original language to the user’s set language. While conversations in a given subreddit may occur in different languages, users won’t have to manually translate every response. This means you can post in whatever language you want, and as long as Reddit supports it, the conversation will automatically be translated into the community’s pre-set language.

To use the feature, users will start seeing a new “Translate” button at the top of the Reddit app (accessible on iPhone, Android smartphones, and the web), which will translate their entire feed into Hindi. Reddit will also add indicators on translated posts, with an option to show the original language, so users can get the full context as originally written.

Last week, the platform introduced Reddit Answers in India, a new artificial intelligence-powered tool to help users easily find information on the platform. The platform has over 100,000 active subreddits and 400 million monthly active users.

Anuj Bhatia is a personal technology writer at indianexpress.com who has been covering smartphones, personal computers, gaming, apps, and lifestyle gadgets actively since 2011. He specialises in writing longer-form feature articles and explainers on trending tech topics. His unique interests encompass delving into vintage tech, retro gaming and composing in-depth narratives on the intersection of history, technology, and popular culture. He covers major international tech conferences and product launches from the world’s biggest and most valuable tech brands. Prior to joining The Indian Express in late 2016, he served as a senior tech writer at My Mobile magazine and previously held roles as a reviewer and tech writer at Gizbot. Anuj holds a postgraduate degree from Banaras Hindu University. You can find Anuj on Linkedin.
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