Asking your church for your language

Your church chooses which languages it offers. If yours is not there yet, you can ask for it from inside the app — it takes one tap.

Choosing your language

1. Open Settings from the menu.

2. Tap Language.

3. Find yours in the list, or type it into Enter language.

You will see two groups:

• Active Languages — ready to use right now. Tap one and the very next sentence arrives in it.

• Requested Languages — languages you have asked for that are still waiting on the church.

What happens when you request one

Tap a language that is not yet active and the app confirms:

[Your language] requested.

That sends a note to whoever is running the translation at the church. Two things can happen:

It is approved straight away. Many churches let any requested language start immediately. You will see [Your language] has been approved and translation begins within seconds.

Someone has to approve it. A small notice appears at the media desk, and a volunteer accepts it. This usually takes a minute or two during a service. Until then your language sits under Requested Languages and you keep seeing the previous one.

Why churches don't simply switch everything on

It is worth knowing, because it explains the wait.

Your church is charged for every language it translates into, every time anyone speaks. Ten languages cost ten times one language, whether ten people are reading or nobody is. So most churches keep a deliberate list rather than leaving every language open.

This is not reluctance to help you. Asking is exactly the right thing to do — churches would far rather add your language than have you sit through a service you cannot follow.

If nothing happens

Church Translation supports more than 127 languages for reading, so it is very unlikely yours is missing altogether. If your request seems to have gone unanswered:

• The service may not be running. Requests are seen by whoever is at the desk during a service. Ask again on a Sunday.

• Ask a person. The welcome desk can approve you on the spot, and they will usually be glad to know someone needed it.

• Check you are still on the right church. If you visit more than one, look at Settings → Church.

Once your language is active

It stays on your list. Next Sunday you open the app and it is simply there.

You may occasionally see a note saying part of the service is shown in the language spoken at the church because nobody was listening in yours at the time. That is normal and explained in The Listening Experience — opening the app a few minutes earlier solves it.