Loquela Review

How it works

About five minutes to read. You can come back to it from the top bar at any time.

What this is

Loquela is an app that gives a voice back to someone who can't speak. They type or tap in their own language, and the app speaks for them; when someone answers, it shows them what was said. Every button, title and message in it was written in English first and then translated.

This site is where people who speak those languages check that wording, so it reads as if it had been written in their language from the start. The person using the app reads these words every day, often in a hurry, sometimes to a stranger. Clear and natural matters more than clever.

A request

Loquela sends you a request: a set of lines in your language. You'll find it under New for you on My work.

A request holds only the lines that need you: new ones, or ones whose English has changed. Lines that have already been approved and haven't changed are never in it. The one exception is a language's first review, which holds every line once, so that a speaker reads all of them.
It's divided into sections, one for each part of the app (Home, Settings, and so on). Open any section from the list, or press Continue to go to the next line you haven't done.
You may have more than one request at a time, for example a large first review and a small "what changed" one. Each one counts only its own lines.

One line at a time

Each line shows you:

A picture of the screen it appears on, with the line highlighted, and a short note saying where it is and when it shows. Other lines on that screen are shown for context. A 🔒 means that one is already approved, so you can't change it here.
The English it was written from.
What kind of text it is: a button, a title, a message after something happens, a sentence spoken aloud. A button wants a short word; a sentence spoken to someone wants to sound natural and polite.
The options to choose from, described next.

Your choices

What the app says today. Choose it if it's right. Saying "this is correct" is just as useful as correcting it.

Another translation, written by a different translation service. It's offered only when it differs from A.

A third translation, the same idea. Pick whichever of A, B and C reads best, or none of them.

✎

Write my own. Type the wording you'd use. The row of letters under the box has the characters of your language that a keyboard may not have. Checks run as you type (see below).

Not sure — come back to it. A bookmark for yourself, with an optional note. The line stays open, and the overview shows how many you've marked with a button that takes you to the next one. The request can't be sent until every marked line has a wording.

Every line needs one of these before you can send. A line you haven't touched is not reviewed: nothing is assumed from silence. If something isn't clear from the picture, mark it "not sure" and carry on; if you still can't tell, write to us (see Questions, below).

Words the app fills in

Some lines contain words in purple, such as {device} or %@. The app replaces them when it runs. For example, {device} becomes "iPad" or "iPhone", and %@ is a word or name, explained beside each line.

Keep them exactly as written: same characters, nothing added inside. If one is deleted or changed, the app shows the wrong thing, and in some cases it can't show the screen at all.
You may move them to wherever they belong in your sentence. If a line has two numbered ones, such as %1$@ and %2$@, you can put them in either order.
If you delete one by accident, the purple button under the box puts it back.

When you write your own wording, the checks tell you straight away if a purple word is missing or changed, if the line is much longer than the English (it may not fit on the screen), or if a letter looks right but isn't. In Romanian, for example, ș and ț are written with a comma below, not a cedilla (ş, ţ); we correct that for you. A line that fails a check is kept as a draft until it passes.

Saving and sending

Everything saves as you go. Close the page, come back tomorrow, and you'll be where you left off. A big request can take several sittings.
When you're ready, choose Review and send. You'll see a summary first.
Send the whole request at once. Every line needs a wording first. The summary shows how many are still open, and Continue takes you straight to them.

What happens next

Loquela reads what you sent, as a whole, and either:

approves it. Your wording becomes the app's wording and reaches people in a following update, or
sends it back with a note saying what to look at. Your work is still there: change what the note asks, and send again.

Under Sent to Loquela and Done on My work you can see where each request is, and which version of the app your wording went into.

There's no password. Enter your email address and we send you a six-digit code, valid for ten minutes. Your first invitation works the same way: the link opens a page, and the code arrives in a second email. If your address changes, Loquela will ask you to confirm the new one with a code sent to it.

This site only shows the requests sent to you. It holds nothing about the people who use the app. How we look after your name and address is on our privacy page.

Questions

Write to contact@loquela.co.nz. If it's about one line, include the reference shown at the top right of that line (for example BK-7) so we can find it.

⌂ My work