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react-i18next in React Native & Expo

Beto, March 19, 2026 · 8,647 views

Most of the world doesn't speak English first, and a single-language app leaves those users (and their revenue) on the table. Adding real multi-language support to an Expo app takes less setup than you'd think: react-i18next plus expo-localization, and no prebuild required.

I set the whole thing up in Platano in the video, including instant language switching without a restart.

What's inside

  • Installing react-i18next and expo-localization the right way
  • Typed translation files so a wrong key fails at compile time
  • Detecting the device language with getLocales on startup
  • Pulling strings anywhere with the useTranslation hook
  • Letting users override the language and persisting their choice
  • Using AI to generate new language files from your existing keys

Resources

CourseReact Native course

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