While switching from Nextcloud to OpenCloud, I immediately noticed that the iOS app was only available in English. At first glance, this might not seem like a major issue, but in practice it quickly becomes a real barrier – especially for users who are not confident in English.
This became very clear in my immediate environment. The app was hardly usable for my family, as all menus, settings, and content were only available in English. This creates an unnecessary entry barrier, which should ideally not exist in a cloud app used in everyday life.
For this reason, I started working on addressing the missing localization and contributing to its improvement. With version 1.2.1, a first complete German translation has now been integrated and released. This makes the app truly accessible for German-speaking users for the first time, as it was previously exclusively available in English.
Release details: https://github.com/opencloud-eu/ios/issues/32#issuecomment-4377091734
Foundation for more languages
This is not an endpoint, but the beginning of a broader internationalization effort.
With this change, the foundation has been laid to make it easier to extend OpenCloud with additional languages in the future. The existing localization structure allows new languages to be integrated more efficiently and existing translations to be continuously improved.
The goal is clear: OpenCloud should be usable by as many people worldwide as possible – regardless of language or region.
Community contribution
As part of my pull request, additional languages were also added to both the iOS and Android apps.
This was only possible through close collaboration with the OpenCloud development team and active contributions from the community. This is exactly where the strength of open source becomes visible: improvements emerge through collaboration, feedback, and real-world contributions.
Translation overview
All currently supported languages and their progress can be viewed here: https://explore.transifex.com/opencloud-eu/opencloud-eu/
There you can transparently see:
- which languages are already available
- how complete individual translations are
- where support is still needed
Invitation
The foundation is now in place, but the project is by no means “finished” – quite the opposite.
If you are interested, you are very welcome to contribute, whether through new translations, corrections, or simply feedback. Discussions and ideas are also explicitly welcome – this is often where the best improvements come from.
Every contribution helps to further develop OpenCloud and make it accessible to even more people.
Discussion
Discussion and feedback on this post are highly welcome: https://mastodon.social/@cryinkfly/116528333952926618
