{"id":653961,"date":"2025-02-18T16:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T13:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/lingo-dev-is-an-app-localization-engine-for-developers\/"},"modified":"2025-02-18T16:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T13:55:10","slug":"lingo-dev-is-an-app-localization-engine-for-developers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/lingo-dev-is-an-app-localization-engine-for-developers\/","title":{"rendered":"#Lingo.dev is an app localization engine for developers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a259a099c623\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a259a099c623\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/lingo-dev-is-an-app-localization-engine-for-developers\/#Found_in_translation\" >Found in translation<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/lingo-dev-is-an-app-localization-engine-for-developers\/#Going_local\" >Going local<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Monolinguists wanting to communicate with the global masses have never had it so easy. Trusty old Google Translate can convert the content of images, audio, and entire websites across hundreds of languages, while newer tools such as ChatGPT also serve as handy pocket translators.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the back end, DeepL and ElevenLabs have have reached lofty billion-dollar valuations for various language-related smarts that businesses can funnel into their own <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>lications. But a new player is now entering the fray, with an AI-powered localization engine that serves the infrastructure to help developers go global \u2014 a \u201cS<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trip<\/a>e\u201d for app localization, if you will.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Formerly known as Replexica, <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/lingo.dev\/en\">Lingo.dev<\/a> targets developers who want to make their app\u2019s front end fully localized from the get-go; all they need to worry about is shipping their code as usual, with Lingo.dev bubbling away under the hood on autopilot. The upshot is that there is no copy\/pasting text between ChatGPT (for quick and dirty translations), or messing around with multiple translation files in different formats sourced from myriad agencies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Today, Lingo.dev counts customers such as French unicorn Mistral AI and <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/venturebeat.com\/business\/open-source-calendly-rival-cal-com-raises-25m\/\">open source Calendly rival Cal.com<\/a>. To drive the next phase of growth, the company has announced it has raised $4.2 million in a seed round of funding led by Initialized Capital, with participation from Y Combinator and a slew of angels.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-found-in-translation\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Found_in_translation\"><\/span>Found in translation<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lingo.dev is the handiwork of CEO <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/maxprilutskiy\/\">Max Prilutskiy<\/a> and CPO <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/vrcprl\/\">Veronica Prilutskaya<\/a> (pictured above) who announced that they sold a previous SaaS startup called <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/notionlytics.com\/en\">Notionlytics<\/a> to an <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MaxPrilutskiy\/status\/1765045470034804935\">undisclosed buyer last year<\/a>. The duo had already been working on the foundations of Lingo.dev since 2023, with the first prototype developed as part of a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/hackathon.cornell.edu\/\">hackathon at Cornell University<\/a>. This led to their first paying customers, before going on to join Y Combinator (YC)\u2019s fall program <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ycombinator.com\/companies\/lingodotdev\">last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At its core, Lingo-dev is a Translation API that can either be called locally by developers <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/docs.lingo.dev\/setup\/cli\">through their CLI<\/a> (command line interface), or through a direct integration with their CI\/CD system via GitHub or GitLab. So in essence, development teams receive pull requests with automated translation updates whenever a standard code change is made.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the heart of all this, as you might expect, is a large language model (LLM) \u2014 or several LLMs, to be exact, with Lingo.dev orchestrating the various input and outputs between them all. This mix-and-match approach, which combines models from Anthropic, OpenAI, among other providers, is designed to ensure that the best model is chosen for the task at hand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDifferent prompts work better in some models over other models,\u201d Prilutskiy explained to TechCrunch. \u201cAlso depending on the use-case, we might want better latency, or latency might not matter all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of course, it\u2019s impossible to talk about LLMs without also talking about data privacy \u2014 one of the reasons that some businesses have been slower to adopt generative AI. But with Lingo.dev, the focus is substantively on localizing front-end interfaces, though it also caters to business content such as marketing sites, automated emails, and more \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t funnel into any customers\u2019 personal identifiable information (PII), for instance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe do not expect any personal data to be sent to us,\u201d Prilutskiy said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through Lingo.dev, companies can build translation memories (a store of previously translated content) and upload their style guide to tailor the brand voice for different markets.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1767\" height=\"1198\" src=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?w=680\" alt=\"Lingo.dev: Building a brand voice\" class=\"wp-image-2964654\" srcset=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png 1767w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=150,102 150w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=300,203 300w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=768,521 768w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=680,461 680w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=1200,814 1200w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=1280,868 1280w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=430,292 430w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=720,488 720w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=900,610 900w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=800,542 800w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=1536,1041 1536w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=668,453 668w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=553,375 553w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=910,617 910w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/BrandVoice.png?resize=708,480 708w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1767px) 100vw, 1767px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"wp-element-caption__text\">Lingo.dev: Building a brand voice<\/span><span class=\"wp-block-image__credits\"><strong>Image Credits:<\/strong>Lingo.dev<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Businesses can also specify rules around how particular phrases should be handled and in what situations. Moreover, the engine can analyze the placement of specific text, making necessary adjustments along the way \u2014 for example, a word when translated from English into German might have double the number of characters, meaning that it would break the UI. Users can instruct the engine to circumvent that problem by rephrasing a piece of text so it matches the length of the original text.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Without the broader context of what an application actually is, it can be difficult to localize a small piece of standalone text, such as a label on an interface. Lingo.dev gets around this using a feature dubbed \u201ccontext awareness,\u201d whereby it analyzes the entire content of the localization file, including adjacent text or event system keys that translation files sometimes have. It\u2019s all about understanding the \u201cmicrocontext,\u201d as Prilutskiy puts it. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And more is coming on this front in the future, too. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re already working on a new feature that uses screenshots of the app\u2019s UI, which Lingo.dev would use to extract even more contextual hints about the UI elements and their intent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1862\" height=\"1353\" src=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?w=680\" alt=\"Lingo.dev dashboard\" class=\"wp-image-2964655\" srcset=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png 1862w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=150,109 150w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=300,218 300w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=768,558 768w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=680,494 680w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=1200,872 1200w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=1280,930 1280w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=430,312 430w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=720,523 720w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=900,654 900w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=800,581 800w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=1536,1116 1536w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=668,485 668w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=516,375 516w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=849,617 849w, https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Screenshot-2025-02-12-at-11.13.22.png?resize=708,514 708w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1862px) 100vw, 1862px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"wp-element-caption__text\">Lingo.dev dashboard<\/span><span class=\"wp-block-image__credits\"><strong>Image Credits:<\/strong>Lingo.dev<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-going-local\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Going_local\"><\/span>Going local<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s still fairly early days for Lingo.dev in terms of its path to full localization. For example, colors and symbols may have different meanings between different cultures, something that Lingo.dev doesn\u2019t directly cater to. Moreover, things like metric\/imperial conversions is something that still needs to be addressed by the developer at the code level. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Lingo.dev does support the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/messageformat.github.io\/messageformat\/\">MessageFormat<\/a> framework, which handles differences in pluralization and gender-specific phrasing between languages. The company also recently released an experimental beta feature specifically for idioms; for instance, \u201cto kill two birds with one stone\u201d has an equivalent in German that translates roughly into \u201cto hit two flies with one swat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On top of that, Lingo.dev is also carrying out applied AI research to improve various facets of the automated localization process. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOne of the complex tasks we\u2019re currently working on is preserving feminine\/masculine versions of nouns and verbs when translating between languages,\u201d Prilutskiy said. \u201cDifferent languages encode different amounts of information. For example, the word \u2018teacher\u2019 in English is gender-neutral, but in Spanish it\u2019s either \u201c<em>maestro<\/em>\u201d (male) or \u201c<em>maestra<\/em>\u201d (female). Making sure these nuances are preserved correctly falls under our applied AI research efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ultimately, the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a>-plan is about much more than simple translation: It wants to get things as close as possible as to what you might get with a team of professional translators.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOverall, the [goal] with Lingo.dev is to eliminate friction from localization so thoroughly, that it becomes an infrastructure layer and natural part of the tech stack,\u201d Prilutskiy said. \u201cSimilar to how Stripe eliminated friction from online payments so effectively that it became a core developer toolkit for payments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the founders most recently were based in Barcelona, they\u2019re moving their formal home to San Francisco. The company counts just three employees total, with a founding engineer making up the trio \u2014 and this is a lean startup philosophy that they plan to follow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFolks at YC, myself and other founders, we\u2019re all huge believers in that,\u201d Prilutskiy said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their previous startup, which provided analytics for Notion, was entirely bootstrapped with high-profile customers including Square, Shopify, and Sequoia Capital \u2014 and it had a grand total of zero employees beyond Max and Veronica.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe were two people, full time, but with some contractors for various things now and then,\u201d Prilutskiy added. \u201cBut we know how to build things with minimal resources. Because the previous company was bootstrapped, so we had to find a way for that to work. And we are replicating the same lean style \u2014 but now with funding.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/category\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Technology<\/a><\/span> category.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2025\/02\/18\/lingo-dev-is-an-app-localization-engine-for-developers\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Monolinguists wanting to communicate with the global masses have never had it so easy. Trusty old Google Translate can convert the content of images, audio, and entire websites across hundreds of languages, while newer tools such as ChatGPT also serve as handy pocket translators. On the back end, DeepL and ElevenLabs have have reached lofty&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":653962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/LingoFounders_74b1f2-e1739353983518.jpg?resize=1200,800","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[77337,75885,5055,154423,151643,154424],"class_list":["post-653961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-ai","tag-enterprise","tag-apps","tag-lingo-dev","tag-y-combinator","tag-yc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}