Take PebbleOS To The World

Pebble has always had a global community. From the very beginning, people all over the world have worn Pebbles on their wrists, built watchfaces for them, and kept them ticking long after anyone expected. But for a lot of those people, the watch on their wrist has never really spoken their language.

Today we're changing that. We're launching translate.repebble.com, a new home for translating PebbleOS, and we'd love your help to take PebbleOS to the world.

Why Translations Matter

Your watch is one of the most personal devices you own. It's the first thing you glance at in the morning and the thing that taps you on the wrist when something important happens. Menus, settings, notifications and system messages should all feel natural to read at a glance, and that means reading them in the language you think in.

Now that PebbleOS is open source, the community can make that happen. Instead of waiting for official language packs, anyone who speaks a language can help bring PebbleOS to the people who speak it too.

Weblate, With A Pebble Twist

translate.repebble.com is built on Weblate, the open source translation platform used by many open source projects. If you've translated software before, you'll feel right at home: pick a language, work through the strings, and leave suggestions and comments for other translators. You don't need to clone a repository, set up a build environment or know anything about how the firmware works.

Translating for a watch is a little different from translating for a phone or a desktop, though. Screens are tiny, every pixel counts, and the watch can only show characters its fonts contain. So we built Peblate, a Weblate extension that adds the Pebble-specific pieces right into the editor:

• Watch previews. As you type, the editor shows your translation in a sample text box drawn by the real PebbleOS text renderer, compiled to run in your browser. You can see right away whether it fits and how it looks in Pebble's fonts.
• Font coverage checks. Peblate checks your language against the fonts that will be used and tells you exactly which characters are missing, with examples, so there are no surprise empty boxes on the watch.
• Custom fonts. Not every script is covered by Pebble's built-in fonts. For those languages you can upload a font along with its license. Peblate compiles it for every text style and lets you review it with the PebbleOS renderer before the language is created.
• Draft language packs. Want to see your work on a real watch? Peblate can build a draft language pack from the translations saved so far, including ones still waiting for review, so you can test before anything is final.

How To Get Involved

1. Head over to translate.repebble.com and sign in with your Pebble Account. That's the same account you already use with the Pebble app, so there's no new password to remember.
2. Choose the language you'd like to work on. If yours isn't there yet, start it with the new-language wizard. It checks whether Pebble's built-in fonts cover your language and walks you through adding a font if they don't.
3. Start translating! Even a few strings help, and every bit counts.

Each existing language already has a select few reviewers from the community. They check new translations before they make it into a language pack, which keeps each language consistent and high quality. So don't worry about getting everything perfect. Your suggestions will get a second pair of eyes.

New languages are open to everyone. If your language isn't on the site yet, you don't need to ask permission. Start it and get translating!

A few tips to keep in mind:

• Keep it short. Pebble screens are small, and a translation that's much longer than the original may get cut off. Keep an eye on the preview. Short, clear wording beats a literal translation.
• Stay consistent. If a term is already translated elsewhere, try to use the same wording so the interface feels cohesive.
• Ask when in doubt. If you're not sure what a string means or where it appears, ask the community. Context makes for better translations.

What's Next

This is just the beginning. Draft packs are for testing for now. Next, we're working on full-screen watch previews and on publishing reviewed language packs so they reach everyone's watches. Translators who get started now will be the ones who make sure their language is ready on day one.

Join Us

PebbleOS is built by its community, and translations are one of the easiest and most rewarding ways to contribute. Whether you speak one language or five, you can help someone, somewhere, use their Pebble in their own language.

If you have questions, feedback or want to coordinate with other translators for your language, come and say hello on the Pebble forum.

We can't wait to see PebbleOS in your language.

JP