Instagram Spotted Testing Hindi Language Support on Mobile

Instagram has been spotted testing Hindi support. The new development could help the Facebook-owned company expand its presence in India, which is already the biggest market for the social networking giant that has over 241 million monthly active Indian users. The Hindi-focused treatment is not just limited to the core Instagram experience but is also on offerings such as IGTV that debuted recently to enable vertical video sharing. However, it is apparently limited for Android devices at the initial stage.

Developer Jane Manchun Wong through a fresh tweet on Thursday revealed Hindi support on Instagram. We were also able to see Hindi support on the latest alpha version of the Instagram app on one of our Android Oreo devices. The experience is initially limited as some of the labels are still in English. For instance, the 'following' tab on your profile and the label of the Invite Contacts option in the Settings menu are yet to be translated into Hindi. There are, however, several areas, including IGTV where the company has provided Hindi text.

It isn't clear whether Hindi will be available on Instagram for Android and iOS, or it will initially be limited for Android users only, with iOS support to follow. We've reached out to Instagram for clarity and will update this space accordingly.

To experience Hindi on Instagram, download the APK file of the alpha build of the Instagram for Android version 72.0.0.0.032 from APK Mirror. Once downloaded, search for Hindi from the Language option by going through the Settings menu.

Support for the Hindi language on Instagram will be another big step to tap the Indian market. The company recently brought the Instagram Lite app that is specifically designed for low-cost Android devices. It also added GIF support to Direct Messages and enabled users with the ability to create Instagram Stories longer than the original 15-second limit. All these features are being widely used by Indian users.

Instagram isn't the only entity that has started focusing on Hindi to expand its reach in India. Companies such as Amazon and Google are already transforming their products and services specifically for the Hindi-speaking audience. Instagram parent company Facebook also last month launched a Digital Literacy Library in Hindi as well as other Indian languages, including Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam to train three lakh Indians in digital safety. The social network also offers Hindi as one of the major languages to ease the experience for Indian users.