Web Translator API

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Translator

51•kozika•6h ago

Comments

rhabarba•4h ago

You had me at "Browser compatibility".

Raed667•4h ago

Chrome embeds a small LLM (never stops being a funny thing) in the browser allowing them to do local translations.

I assume every browser will do the same as on-device models start becoming more useful.

rhabarba•4h ago

While I appreciate the on-device approach for a couple of reasons, it is rather ironic that Mozilla needs to document that for them.

its-summertime•4h ago

Firefox also has on-device translations for what its worth.

Asraelite•3h ago

What's the easiest way to get this functionality outside of the browser, e.g. as a CLI tool?

Last time I looked I wasn't able to find any easy to run models that supported more than a handful of languages.

ukuina•2h ago

ollama run gemma3:1b

https://ollama.com/library/gemma3

> support for over 140 languages

diggan•1h ago

Try to translate a paragraph with 1b gemma and compare it to DeepL :) Still amazing it can understand anything at all at that scale, but can't really rely on it for much tbh

_1•2h ago

If you need to support several languages, you're going to have to have a zoo of models. Small ones just can't handle that many; and they especially aren't good enough for distribution, we only use them for understanding.

JimDabell•2h ago

That depends on what counts as “a handful of languages” for you.

You can use llm for this fairly easily:

    uv tool install llm

    # Set up your model however you like. For instance:
    llm install llm-ollama
    ollama pull mistral-small3.2

    llm --model mistral-small3.2 --system "Translate to English, no other output" --save english
    alias english="llm --template english"

    english "Bonjour"
    english "Hola"
    english "Γειά σου"
    english "你好"
    cat some_file.txt | english

https://llm.datasette.io

usagisushi•1h ago

Tip: You might want to use `uv tool install llm --with llm-ollama`.

ref: https://github.com/simonw/llm/issues/575

JimDabell•1h ago

Thanks!

wittjeff•2h ago

https://ai.meta.com/blog/nllb-200-high-quality-machine-trans... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGgzRE3TlvU

tempodox•6m ago

What compatibility? It's Chrome-only.

troupo•4h ago

While this might be useful, be mindful:

- it's experimental

- the "specification" is nowhere near a standards track: https://webmachinelearning.github.io/translation-api/

Of course it's already shipped in Chrome, and now Chrome pretends that its own Chrome-only API is somehow standard. Expect people on HN to blame other browsers for not shipping this.

jazzypants•2h ago

I've been pleasantly surprised by the last few conversations about this type of thing that I've seen. It seems like people are pretty sick of Chrome's IE proclivities.

moron4hire•1h ago

This is the W3C standardization process.

The W3C is not a prescriptive standardization body. It doesn't have any regulatory power giving it any teeth to go after vendors acting in bad faith. So the W3C process is descriptive and encourages a period of competitive divergence in implementations. It is only after the early adopters have hammered on the features and figured out which parts they like best that a Web API can then start to get standardized.

nachomg•4h ago

This gives strong IE vibes.

lynx97•3h ago

Can we please NOT autotranslate the web? I have yet to find a site where the quality of autotranslate does not make me stop using that site. I was already irritated when google started to show me de.wikipedia.org articles adespite me explicitly searching for the english article name. Then came Etsy, where the autotranslate quality was so bad I stopped using the site altogether.

diggan•1h ago

The good news is that if the browsers offered this natively, websites wouldn't need their own implementation of this. And if it's in the client (the browser), you're most likely gonna be able to turn it off globally, just like how you like it.

Worst case scenario a user-script/extension could monkey patch it out, but probably clients will let you disable it.

sandstrom•1h ago

This is not auto-translation.

Rather, it's an API developers can use to add inline translation to web apps.

For example, under a comment in your app, you can (a) detect the language, and (b) if it's different from the current users/browsers language, offer to translate it with a small link (c) if the user clicks the link, the content is translated to their language.

lofaszvanitt•1h ago

But Reddit already does it! It's a new form of cultural colonisation by a headless society.

RockRobotRock•3h ago

https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/1015

sandstrom•1h ago

I honestly don't understand the arguments Mozilla have against it.

Safari/webkit is positive (though no official stance yet):

https://github.com/WebKit/standards-positions/issues/339#iss...

yjftsjthsd-h•1h ago

I don't know enough to understand the DOM argument, but

> The spec assumes a certain form of translation backend, exposing information about model availability, download progress, quotas, and usage prediction. We'd like to minimize the information exposure so that the implementation can be more flexible.

reads to me as Chrome once again trying to export itself verbatim as a "standard" and Mozilla pointing out that that's not really applicable to others.

Also the WebKit post seems to raise somewhat similar arguments but on the basis of fingerprinting/privacy problems.

sfmz•2h ago

https://developer.chrome.com/docs/ai/translator-api

const translator = await Translator.create({ sourceLanguage: 'en', targetLanguage: 'fr', });

await translator.translate('Where is the next bus stop, please?');

sandstrom•1h ago

This would be very useful.

Basically, the 'translate this' button you see on Twitter or Instagram next to comments in foreign languages. This API would make it trivial for all developers to add that to their web apps.

lofaszvanitt•1h ago

Another useful feature that nobody could've replicated themselves.

indeyets•52m ago

So, the browsers have to provide some means for choosing the desired translation engine (add-on API maybe?) and this is a standard API which all of the providers should implement.

right?

pwdisswordfishz•14m ago

Why does it need to be a JavaScript API?

Why not just use the lang= attribute as it was intended, then let the user select text to translate as they wish?

tempodox•8m ago

It's only implemented in Google Chrome, so go figure.

diggan•6m ago

If it's a HTML attribute, then you can only use it with DOM elements, with no control about when it runs.

Instead, a JS API gives more flexibility and control.

Besides, I think the "lang" attribute is supposed to signal what the language of the text inside that element is, not what it could/should be. So even if going with attributes would be the way forward, a new one would need to be created.

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