1430427 - Google Play don't show localized descriptions while localization of Appstores is complete

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Release Engineering :: Release Automation: Other, defect, P1)

Description

[Amir Farsi]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:59.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/59.0
Build ID: 20171229100308

Steps to reproduce:

1-I went to Pontoon and selected Persian language
2-I went to Appstores project on Pontoon (https://pontoon.mozilla.org/fa/appstores/)
3-I saw all of it's files translated to Persian up to 100%
4-I went to Google Play on my mobile phone with Iran's(Persian is official language of this country) IP addess
5-I went to page of Firefox Browse, Firefox for Android Beta and Firefox Focus on Google Play


Actual results:

All pages of mozilla products on Google Play wasn't in Persian! These pages was in English.
While i checked these pages with iran's ip address, not with UK or USA or via Proxies,...


Expected results:

Google Play should show descriptions and... of Mozilla Apps in Persian language, because we localized Appstores project on Pontoon.
Note: I couldn't check Apple App store and status on it. Because i haven't access to iPhone.

Comment 1

[Amir Farsi]

I forgot to say my device settings:
1-UI Language: Persian(Fa)
2-Test Device: Huawei TIT-AL00 (Y6 Pro)
3-Google Play Version: 8.7.09
Note: Google Play's UI language(Like Install Button, Main Menu,...) is on Persian(fa)
4-Google Play Services Version: 11.9.73
5-Android Version: 5.1 
6-Android Launcher: Huawei EMUI Lite 3.1
7-Device Timezone: Iran/Tehran (GMT+3:30)

Comment 2

[Amir Farsi]

Attachment: Firefox Beta Descriptions in Google Play is English not Persian

Comment 3

[Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - Use needinfo]]

There should be automation in place, at least for Firefox Android, that updates all localizations on the store. Not sure if there's something wrong on that side.
For Focus Android, there should be a script too - don't know if it's been automated or not though (note that we don't localize the What's New anymore there - but the rest (Description) should appear localized if you've localized it at one point).

For iOS at this point I don't think there's Persian support on their store.

Ni on Johan so he can look into this!

Comment 4

[Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - Use needinfo]]

Note: I see Johan is currently on PTO, so we will have to wait a bit for this (not sure who's replacing him)

Comment 5

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

Thank you very much for filing this bug, Amir!

The problem seems to be located on the Google Play side. Strings are correctly fetched from l10n.mozilla-community.org[1] and submitted to Google Play[2]. I do see them on the configuration console[3] Google Play provides. However, they don't appear on the public facing page[4], even when I force the locale to Persian.

I contacted the Google Play support. They weren't able to find what went wrong immediately. This may be a misconfiguration on our end (or a bug on theirs). They will investigate it and follow up with me, once they find something.


[1] https://tools.taskcluster.net/groups/KgYNsuioTg6nba0_GOOIAA/tasks/cY4UvigXQfeku_FWIp_7kw/runs/0/logs/public%2Flogs%2Flive_backing.log#L50
[2] https://tools.taskcluster.net/groups/KgYNsuioTg6nba0_GOOIAA/tasks/cY4UvigXQfeku_FWIp_7kw/runs/0/logs/public%2Flogs%2Flive_backing.log#L144
[3] https://play.google.com/apps/publish/#MarketListingPlace:p=org.mozilla.firefox. Select locale "Persian - fa". Only restricted people can see this page.
[4] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox&hl=fa. You can test other locales, like "fr", "es-US" by replacing "hl=fa" into "hl=es-US". They do display, even when your Google Play account is set up in a different language.

Comment 6

[Michael Comella (:mcomella) [NI reported issues only: ex-Mozilla]]

[triage] This is a pretty bad experience for non-English speakers. Looks like it's being worked on by Johan (waiting for a response from Google Play).

Comment 7

[Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - Use needinfo]]

FWIW I don't think Persian is the only locale affected. Some contributors from Malayalam localization told me this was happening to them as well last month.

Comment 8

[Anish Sheela]

Its there for Malayalam now also.

Comment 9

[Anish Sheela]

I meant, app descriptions are showing in English even after Malayalam is set as locale.

Comment 10

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

Attachment: URL to all published locales

I've got some answers from Google Play support. Even though I showed them I was able to reproduce the bug, they keep asking me "the user's primary email address for the Google account". The main reason is:.
> The link  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox_beta&hl=fa is not an relatable way to test the localization as this will also depend on your current  location and device.   

I haven't given out any email address, because of privacy concerns. Amir, if you feel comfortable to share this piece of data, you can communicate it to me over either email or IRC[1].


Thank you Delphine and Anish for raising the concern about other languages. Even if Google Play support says the direct link isn't reliable, I can reproduce with Malayalam (ml-IN) too. Furthermore, I checked every locale[2]. I see:
* ka-GE, ml-IN, ta-IN display the en-US translation. Delphine, could you check with community members of ka-GE and ta-IN if they see non-localized strings too?
* fi-FI, lv show a different (outdated?) flavor of English. This is a different problem. I see on the Google Play console we did upload English strings at some point. Flod, do you think we should take them out? 
* fa now shows French on my machine (it used to show English). Amir, do you see something different, now? 


[1] You can find my email address and my IRC nick on https://mozillians.org/en-US/u/jlorenzo/ 
[2] I opened the 46 links in this attachment thanks to this addon https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/open-multiple-urls

Comment 11

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

Leaving NI open for Delphine, I think it's her call also for that part of the question. We have both locales enabled, they're just behind, maybe we should give them a nudge.

Comment 12

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

I'm sad. Google Play support doesn't want to investigate, unless we provide them at least one email address:

> I understand that you would like to respect privacy of your users as much as possible, however in order to investigate the case we will need as you say a reliable complain where we can actually investigate. 
> 
> Once we have user email address who is having this localization issue, I am happy to look in to this issue and investigate further. 
> 
> Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Anish, just like Amir, if you feel comfortable to share the email address of your Google account, you can communicate it to me over either email or IRC[1].

[1] You can find my email address and my IRC nick on https://mozillians.org/en-US/u/jlorenzo/

Comment 13

[Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - Use needinfo]]

Thanks so much Johan for this thorough investigation! It's very helpful.
So to recap: 
* I'll reach out to Georgian (ka), Tamil (ta) and Malayalam (ml) teams to see if they see untranslated strings
* I'll contact Finnish (fi) and Lithuanian (lt) teams and ask them if they can complete their work, in order to see if there are any issues there as well. FWIW Finnish has no work done at all yet on store content so I'm not surprised it appears in English.

Is there anything else that I'm forgetting?

Comment 14

[Francesco Lodolo [:flod]]

(In reply to Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - use Need Info] from comment #13)
> * I'll contact Finnish (fi) and Lithuanian (lt) teams and ask them if they
> can complete their work, in order to see if there are any issues there as
> well. 

Comment 10 mentions Latvian (lv), not Lithuanian (lt) (they're both incomplete though).

Comment 15

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

(In reply to Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - use Need Info] from comment #13)
> Is there anything else that I'm forgetting?
Looks good to me! One thing I forgot to ask: if the ka, ta, and ml teams don't see translated strings, could you ask them if their okay to give the email address of the Google account they used? This will be used by Google to investigate the issue.

Comment 16

[அருண் குமார்-Arun Kumar]

For Tamil (ta), 4 Suggestions were correted. not Firefox for Android - 100% (Completed). We too see only English description on Playstore. 

@John, For ta locale, you can share my e-mail id. First ,ee need to see translated strings on playstore.

Comment 17

[Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - Use needinfo]]

(In reply to Francesco Lodolo [:flod] from comment #14)
> (In reply to Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - use Need Info] from comment #13)
> > * I'll contact Finnish (fi) and Lithuanian (lt) teams and ask them if they
> > can complete their work, in order to see if there are any issues there as
> > well. 
> 
> Comment 10 mentions Latvian (lv), not Lithuanian (lt) (they're both
> incomplete though).

Oops, I mistyped! Interesting, because I did contact Latvian folks by email after writing that ^^ 
They have not answered yet.

I did get an answer from Georgian, and he confirms he sees English strings in areas where text should appear translated (such as the description). I'm asking now if he is OK with sharing his email!

Tamil folks also answered, same issue. But I see Arun has commented already here too in the meantime :) (thanks Arun!) So that's one email you can use for that case.

Still waiting to hear back from all the other folks. Will ask them about using their emails as well! thanks everyone!

Comment 18

[Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - Use needinfo]]

@Johan: I assume the email address has to be linked to a Google account? Because our Georgian localizer doesn't have one: he uses Yalp store, a google store alternative, and from there can change the Play Store language.

Comment 19

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

(In reply to Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - use Need Info] from comment #18)
> @Johan: I assume the email address has to be linked to a Google account?

That's right! Out of curiosity, can he reproduce this issue on the Yalp store too?

Comment 20

[Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - Use needinfo]]

(In reply to Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo] from comment #19)
> (In reply to Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - use Need Info] from comment #18)
> > @Johan: I assume the email address has to be linked to a Google account?
> 
> That's right! Out of curiosity, can he reproduce this issue on the Yalp
> store too?

I've asked, but still waiting on an answer. 

Quick update: will ping Malayalam team again about sharing their email. Couldn't get a clear answer from Latvian folks, and no response yet from Finnish team about this.

Comment 21

[Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - Use needinfo]]

@Johan: Anish gave me the authorization to share his email with Google for Malayalam (ml). Sending it to you via email now.

Comment 22

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

(In reply to அருண் குமார்-Arun Kumar from comment #16)
Thank you very much Arun, I told the Google Play support you can't see the ta-IN strings. (By the way, I'm sorry I missed your message, last time)

(In reply to Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - use Need Info] from comment #21)
Thank you Delphine and Anish! I told the Google Play support about ml-IN too.

Comment 23

[Amir Farsi]

(In reply to Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo] from comment #10)
> I haven't given out any email address, because of privacy concerns. Amir, if
> you feel comfortable to share this piece of data, you can communicate it to
> me over either email or IRC[1].
Hi Johan. I will send my used email address(gmail account) to your email address after i sent this post in here(I mean your email under mozilla.com domain). You can send it for Google Product Support team.


In addition:
1-I checked Google Play via compurter browser(hl=fa) and i see only English descriptions.

2-I see English desription on my device(In google Play) for all of mozilla products, not French or...

3-I think you should send your post via Google Issue Tracker system, not their product support. Because it seems there is a Bug in Google Play. (https://issutracker.google.com). They will answer to you better than google product support.

4-Maybe Google Play don't supprt localization in discriptions. Because it's not only Mozilla products that haven't Persian descriptions, all of other apps like WhatsApp haven't Persian description too. Only some of Persian(Basically persian) apps like Iranian apps have Persian descriptions. I didn't know Google Play can show localized descriptions in all of times i worked with Google Play. I only knew it when i wanted to know what is app stores in pontoon and looked at it's info and it was wonderfull for me!

5-Can you check with languages like German, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese and other european languages that have more support by google? Because if you can't see German descriptions in Germany, then you will not see Persian,... descriptions too.

6-Recently, It seems Google play working on more localize itself. I see more parts of Google Play(Counters, Menues, Tags,...) in Persian language every day. In recent weeks I can see Persian numbers in counters of download apps instead of latin numbers in Google Play.(The thing we recently fixed in Firefox too in bug #1201232,...)
Maybe this proccess efected on other parts of Google Play like description localization.

Comment 24

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

Thank you for this detailed answer, Amir! I forwarded it to the Google Play support. Their answer was:

> I can confirm this is an ongoing issue that was escalated it to our technical team for further investigation. 
> 
> I appreciate your patience about this, while we work on this.

We now have to wait. Thank you all for sharing your experience!

Comment 25

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

Still no answer from the Google Play support. I sent an email asking for status.

For the record, I'm still able to reproduce by visiting this link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mozilla.firefox&hl=fa

Comment 26

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

Their answer:
> This issue has been escalated to our engineering team and we've noted your
> specific connection to this issue. While I do not currently have a timeline
> for this issue to be resolved, I can assure you we will take it into
> consideration as we continue to roll out new improvements to your Google
> Play Developer Console.

As far as I know, Google is very data-oriented in their decision-making process. If we could have the number of users impacted in each locales, I believe we can push for the fix.

Comment 27

[Justin Wood (:Callek)]

Found in triage, :jlorenzo is this resolved in some way, should this bug live in a different component/product?

Comment 28

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

Thanks! Pushapk is probably the best place, even though our code doesn't have any problem.

Comment 29

[Amir Farsi]

Hi.
It seems about 80% of this bug fixed.
Currently Google Play shows Persian description for apps. If an app haven't Persian description, Google Play will translate it by Google Translate.
But there is a problem. All of Mozilla products shows Persian descriptions, except Firefox for Android(Release) and Notes by Firefox: A Secure Notepad App.
Current Status:
Firefox nightly for developers: 
 Title Of App is Persian
 Description is Persian

Firefox for Android(Beta):
 Title Of App is Persian
 Description is Persian
 Release notes is Persian!!
 
Firefox Focus:
 Title Of App is Persian
 Description is Persian
 Release notes is English!!

Firefox for Android(Release):
 Title Of App is English
 Description is English
 Release notes is English
 Show Google Translate Button: No!

Notes by Firefox (Not Released):
 Title Of App is English
 Description is English
 Release notes is English
 Show Google Translate Button: Yes!

Mozilla Page in Google Play:
 Title Of App is English
 Description is English
 Release notes is English
 Show Google Translate Button: No


Note: You can check it via both Google Play App on Android and ?hl=fa link via desktop. Both of them have above results.
Note2: I checked pontoon. Translation of fx_android/description_release.lang is 100%, but Firefox(Release) description is English yet! Why it happened?
Note3: Why Firefox For Android(Beta) can have Persian release notes, but other mozilla products can't have it?
Note4: Should we localize Notes for Firefox too?
Note5: I saw WhatsApp have Persian screen shots in google Play in addition of Persian description. Can we have it for mozilla products too?

Comment 30

[Delphine Lebédel [:delphine - Use needinfo]]

I can only answer as per screenshots right now. We only localize screenshots for Google Play screenshots for a very small subset of locales. Market research in the past showed there's no value in doing it as less than 1% of users actually look at them. So it's not worth the time and effort :)
Thanks!

Comment 31

[Amir Farsi]

Hi. Today problem of Firefox for Android(Release) fixed too.
Current status:
Firefox for Android(Release):
 Title Of App is Persian
 Description is Persian
 Release notes is Persian
 Show Google Translate Button: No

Remained problems:
1-Release notes of Firefox Focus is English yet.
2-Descriptions of Notes by Firefox (Not Released is English yet.
3-Descriptions of Mozilla page on Google Play is English yet.
4-Abourt localized screenshots, look at comment 30 by Delphine.

Comment 32

[Johan Lorenzo [:jlorenzo]]

Closing this bug because we're deprecating stores_l10n in bug 1578359.