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    Haevn now speaks sixteen languages

    6 min read

    Haevn now speaks sixteen languages. English UK and English US are the two the app was built in, and there are fourteen new languages alongside them: Spanish, French, German, Polish, Welsh, Romanian, Portuguese, Italian, Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil and Simplified Chinese. Every screen, menu, button and message runs in the language a person picks in Settings. Emails, exported documents and support replies stay in English for now, and we say so on every page.

    Fourteen of the sixteen also have their own landing page on this site, one per language, at /es, /fr, /de and so on. The two English variants share the main site. This post is not an international-expansion announcement. Haevn is a UK product for households in the UK. The reason we translated is simpler: a lot of UK families do not run in English at home, and a family hub app that assumes one household language quietly excludes the person doing most of the coordinating.

    Why these sixteen, and why now

    We picked the fourteen new languages by looking at the census data on languages other than English spoken at home in the UK, then adding Welsh because it is a co-official language and Romanian because it is one of the fastest-growing community languages of the last decade. English UK and English US were already there, so sixteen is the honest count of what Haevn actually speaks at launch. Urdu and Arabic are next, but both read right to left, and doing that properly means designing the app for it rather than bolting it on. That is a proper release, not a translation pass, so it is coming as its own thing.

    What actually got translated

    The whole app. Every screen a family member sees, in the language they chose. Menus, buttons, error messages, empty states, permission prompts, the lot. The fourteen new landing pages are all translated. The features keep their English proper names inside the app because that is the brand: The Plan, The Pot, The List, Meal Planner, Family Chat and Co-parenting stay as they are, but everything explaining them is in-language.

    What is not translated yet, and we say so honestly:

    • Emails from Haevn (welcome, receipts, password reset). English for now.
    • Documents you export (PDF summaries, calendar exports). English for now.
    • Support replies. Our support team writes in English, though they will read and understand any language.
    • The Security and Trust pages, which contain a lot of legal precision that we would rather get right in one language than approximately in fifteen.

    Every localised landing page carries that disclosure in the reader's own language, and there is a feedback widget on each one so we hear when a phrase reads oddly.

    Mixed-language households are a first-class case

    This is the part we spent the longest on. In a lot of UK families, one adult prefers Punjabi, another prefers English, a teenager prefers English, a grandparent prefers Gujarati. Every one of them can set Haevn to their own language. Haevn will render in that language for that person. Shared content, lists, calendar events, messages, notes, stays exactly as whoever wrote it. Nothing gets rewritten. So the shopping list can have milk written in English and paneer written in Punjabi, next to each other, and both are correct.

    That was more work than translating fourteen dictionaries. It meant every shared surface had to be neutral about the writer's language, and every personal surface had to respect the reader's. The dictionaries are the small part. Getting that mixed-household case right was the point.

    How we translated, and how we know it needs work

    We wrote the English master first, kept every string short and placeholder-clean, then translated with a mix of professional human translators for the strapline and disclosure copy, and an in-language editing pass for the rest. Every landing page carries a "does this read well" widget. Anything a native speaker flags comes back to us and we fix it.

    We are not claiming these are perfect. Fourteen new dictionaries in one release almost never are. The Welsh mutations in particular are a place where we have already had to fix things (Cymraeg becomes Gymraeg after "yn"), and there will be more. The disclaimer on every localised page tells the reader exactly that, in their own language, and gives them the email address to write to.

    Read the announcement in your language

    Each language has its own short version of this note, in that language. This list grows as we ship them:

    The landing pages, in one place

    Every one of the fourteen new languages has its own landing page. Pick yours:

    Frequently asked

    Are you expanding outside the UK? No. Haevn is a UK product, priced in pounds, with UK-specific school-run and bin-day and NHS logic baked in. Sixteen languages inside the UK, not one product for sixteen countries.

    Will there be more languages? Yes. Urdu and Arabic are the next two, and they need the right-to-left redesign. After that, we will follow feedback from the landing pages.

    How do I change language? Open Haevn, go to Settings, pick your language. It applies to your account and to the notifications sent to you.

    Can two people in the same household use different languages? Yes. Each person picks their own. Shared content is not rewritten.

    Are the translations reviewed? The strapline and disclosure copy went through professional human review. The rest had an editing pass. Everything is open to correction through the on-page feedback widget or by emailing support@haevn.co.uk.

    Is Haevn on the App Store? Not yet. You install Haevn from your browser today at app.haevn.uk using Add to Home Screen. A store release is coming.

    If you speak any of the fourteen new languages and something reads oddly, please tell us. It is the fastest way to make the next pass better.

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