The World of Reverse-Oriented UI—RTL Language Support in Android Apps

When you localize an app, sooner or later you will need to support RTL (Right-To-Left) languages—those written from right to left. The Android app I oversee recently faced this requirement. But what exactly must be done to enable RTL? Android’s OS and framework handle part of the job “automatically,” yet engineers still have to intervene manually to fix UI breakage, mirror images, and correct unintended layout behavior. In this talk I will share the insights gained during my research and implementation of RTL support from the following perspectives: 1. What RTL language support actually entails 2. RTL handling that the OS and framework perform “automatically” 3. RTL handling that engineers must tackle “manually” 3.1 Layout fixes 3.2 Image fixes 3.3 Other unexpected pitfalls 4. How to verify the support status After attending, even first-timers addressing RTL language support should be able to proceed with confidence. (Translated by the DroidKaigi Committee)

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  akatsuki174 株式会社ゆめみ Mobile engineer