Bell 0.12.0: Mark read on each card, and local translation
Bell 0.12.0 adds two things to the feed: a Mark read control on every card, and optional translation that uses a translation app installed on your phone.
Mark read
Each card now has a red Mark read control in its bottom-right corner, just before More. Tap it to mark that post as read. On a post that is already read, the control stays in the same place and is shown as disabled. This keeps the controls in the same position on every card.
Translation
Bell can show posts in your reading language. Automatic translation is on by default, and the default reading language is English. You can choose a different language by name in settings. For example, to read Spanish posts in English, keep English as your reading language and make sure the language packs for Spanish to English are downloaded in the translation app described below.
To translate one post yourself, open More and choose Translate. The translated text replaces the original text on the card. Use Show original and Show translation to switch between the two.
Translation only changes what Bell displays. The signed post stays the same. Replies, reactions and reposts still point to the original event, and links and Nostr references in the text are kept. Translations are cached on your device for display only. If local translation isn’t available, Bell does not send the text to a cloud service instead.
What you need
Bell uses Offline Translator, a separate Android app that you install yourself. Bell sends translation requests to the engine that this app provides. Bell does not include or download language packs. You download the packs in Offline Translator, and you need the ones for the languages you want to translate.
The list of languages in Bell’s settings comes from the engine’s catalog. If a language is on the list, its pack is not necessarily on your phone, and translation quality varies between languages.
If the translation app or a needed pack is missing, or the post’s language can’t be detected, Bell shows the original post. If you asked for a translation with Translate and it fails, Bell can show a message about what went wrong.
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