My latest app is called Delighted! – “Great to meet you!”, or “Delighted!” in short. That is, in the English-language App Store.

For other languages, I decided that a more localized approach might give the app a more personal touch. So, while the name invariably begins with Delighted!, which serves as the main name of the app across languages, the latter part is localized.

These are the localized names that made it into the first release of “Delighted!”:

  • Delighted! – “Great to meet you!” (English)
  • Delighted! – „Schön Sie kennenzulernen!“ (German)
  • Delighted! – « Enchanté ! » (French)
  • Delighted! – «Mucho gusto!» (Spanish)
  • Delighted! – “Muito prazer!” (Brazilian Portuguese)
  • Delighted! –『认识你很高兴』(Simplified Chinese)
  • Delighted! –『만나서 반가워요』(Korean)

Note how the quotation marks, and their spacing to the quoted text, differ between the languages. There is a fascinating Wikipedia entry on non-English usage of quotation marks, on which I drew heavily.

I am not sure what happens in App Stores without a corresponding metadata localization. Do they fall back on “similar” localizations, e.g. if there is a (Portuguese) Portuguese but no Brazilian Portuguese, is the Portuguese-Portuguese displayed to Brazilian users? Similarly, if there is a Simplified Chinese version but no Traditional Chinese, will Taiwanese users see the Simplified Chinese localization? And does this fall-back go both ways?

Ultimately, though, I doubt that many users care about what some call typographic “moronicities”. I am not sure whether most «French-speaking Swiss» mind using the « French » localization. Also, maintaining a large number of localizations in iTunes Connect is a pain, to say the least. Therefore, although I strive to respect the different typographic traditions, I will probably keep it under a dozen variants.

This “localized naming” approach is, in the end, an experiment. I am eager to see how it goes.

As always, let me know your thoughts on Twitter, App.net, or by e-mail. Let me know if you think “Delighted!” should absolutely be localized to your favorite language, and I’ll see what I can do.