Help:Multilingual support for Android

Not all Android devices come with a complete set of Unicode fonts.

If you wish to install additional fonts, you will likely need to root your device.

Check

The following sections will let you check to see what scripts are installed properly on your device.

Alphabets

Latin: If you're reading this, you already have Latin installed on your device.

Script	Correct rendering	Your computer
Cyrillic	File:Example of Cyrillic text.png	Кирилица
Greek	File:Example of Greek text.png	Ελληνικό
Georgian	File:Example of Georgian text.png	ქართული
Armenian	File:Example of Armenian text.png	Հայերեն
Arabic	File:Example of Arabic text.png	أبجدية عربية
Hebrew	File:Example of Hebrew text.png	אלפבית עברי

Other

Script	Correct rendering	Your computer
Ethiopic	File:Example of Ethiopic text.png	ግዕዝ ፊደል
Thaana	File:Example of Thaana text.png	ތާނަ އަލިފުބާގެ ތަރުތީބު

Indic

Script
	Correct rendering	Your computer
Devanagari	File:Complex Text Rendering - Devanagari.svg	→
Tamil	File:Complex Text Rendering - Tamil.svg	→
Gujarati	File:Complex Text Rendering - Gujarati.svg	→
Gurmukhi	File:Complex Text Rendering - Gurmukhi.svg	→
Kannada	File:Complex Text Rendering - Kannada.svg	→
Telugu	File:Complex Text Rendering - Telugu.svg	→
Bengali, Assamese	File:Complex Text Rendering - Bengali.svg	→
Malayalam	File:Complex Text Rendering - Malayalam.svg	→
Tibetan	File:Complex Text Rendering - Tibetan.svg	→
Sinhala	File:Complex Text Rendering - Sinhala.svg	→
Odia	File:Complex Text Rendering - Odia.svg	→
Thai	File:Complex Text Rendering - Thai.svg	→
Lao	File:Complex Text Rendering - Lao.svg	→
Khmer	File:Examples.of.complex.text.rendering.Khmer.svg
Burmese	File:Complex Text Rendering - Burmese.svg	+ →
Javanese	File:Examples.of.complex.text.rendering.Javanese.png	+ + + + →
Balinese	File:Examples.of.complex.text.rendering.Balinese.png	+ + + + + →
Sundanese	File:Examples.of.complex.text.rendering.Sundanese.png	+ + + →

East Asian

Script	Correct rendering	Your computer
Traditional Chinese	File:Chinesetexttest.png
Simplified Chinese	File:SimChinesetexttest.png
Japanese	File:Japanese text test.svg
Korean	File:Korean text test.svg

Keyboards

If you plan to use multiple languages in Android, or to edit articles on Wikipedia on foreign languages that require scripts, chances are you will need to install a new keyboard, that can easily switch between settings without forcing you to return to settings. Fortunately, there are several free keyboards available for Android which will allow you to do this.

• AnySoft Keyboard by Menny Even
• Gboard by Google
• Keyman by SIL International
• MultiLing Keyboard by Han Honso
• MultiLingual Keyboard by Amidos
• SwiftKey Keyboard by Microsoft

There are also several other free multilingual keyboards which come with experimental input methods:

• Hacker's Keyboard by Klaus Weidner

Comparison

Comparison of native support and available plugins for each keyboard. Note that not all plugins may work without installing a suitable font.

Alphabet	EazyType	Language	AnySoft	Go	Han Honso ML	Amidos ML	Adaptxt	Hacker's	Slide IT	TouchPal
Latin	Azerbaijani	---	---	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native	---	---	---	---
	French	Plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native	---	---	Plugin	---
	German	Plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native	---	---	Plugin	---
	Spanish	Plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native	---	---	Plugin	---
	Indonesian	---	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native	---	---	Plugin	---
	Turkish	---	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native	---	---	Plugin	---
	Vietnamese	---	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	---	---
Cyrillic	Russian	Plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native	---	---	Plugin	---
	Bulgarian	Plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	Plugin	---
	Ukrainian	Plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native	---	---	Plugin	---
Greek		Plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	Plugin	---
Georgian		Plugin Requires font	Native Keyboard Requires font Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Requires font Dictionary plugin	Native Requires font	---	---	---	---
Armenian		Plugin Requires font	---	Native Keyboard Requires font Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	---	---
Arabic	Plugin	---	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	Plugin	---
	Farsi	Plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Requires font Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	Plugin	---
	Urdu	---	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Requires font Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	Plugin	---
Hebrew	Hebrew	---	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	---	---
	Yiddish	---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	---	---
Ethiopic	Amharic	---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	---	---
Thaana	Dhivehi	---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---
Korean		---	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	---	---
Japanese		---	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	---	---
Chinese (Simplified)		---	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	---	---
Chinese (Traditional)		---	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	---	---
Yi		---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---
Devangari	Hindi	Plugin Requires font	Native Keyboard Requires font Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Requires font Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	---	---
	Marathi	---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---
Bengali		---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---
Gujarati		---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font Dictionary plugin	---	---	---	---	---
Gurmukhi	Punjabi	---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---
Oriya		---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---
Sinhala		---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---
Kannada		Plugin Requires font	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---
Malayalam		---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---
Tamil		Plugin Requires font	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---
Telugu		---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---
Tibetan		---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---
Burmese		---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---
Khmer		---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---
Lao		Plugin Requires font	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---
Thai		Plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary plugin	Native Keyboard Dictionary Plugin	---	---	---	---	---
Canadian Aboriginal		---	---	Native Keyboard Requires font	---	---	---	---	---

Fonts

Chances are that your Android device will include Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic and most East-Asian fonts (except Yi), as well as Greek, Thai and Hebrew, meaning that you will be able to read, and once you have a proper keyboard, to write, languages spoken by a majority of the world's population.

However the large majority of the world's scripts are unsupported, including all Indic scripts except Thai (collectively covering India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Cambodia, and Laos as well as Yi, Ge'ez, Thaana, Georgian, Armenian, and Canadian Aboriginal. While all of these alphabets except Burmese have keyboards available, they won't work unless you have the correct fonts.

And many Android devices (such as the Galaxy Tab mentioned above) do not allow you to install fonts, which will make things difficult for you. To install fonts on such devices, you will have to root them, before installing fonts. Detailed rooting instructions can be found here. Keep in mind that rooting your phone will format it, which means that it is very important to back-up your data prior to rooting.

Once your device is open, you will be able to install true-type fonts directly on your device, or use an installer from Android, such as this one for Georgian. Alternatively, you can also copy the font file into /system/fonts folder, then you edit /system/etc/fallback_fonts.xml to make your font work with many Android apps.