Android Emulator on Mac in Your Language: the Launcher’s Language and Android’s

The MACOS EMULATOR launcher is written in three languages: English, Français and Tiếng Việt. It cannot display any other, and the choice is made in Settings, on a single row. This article explains what that setting changes, what Android takes from it, and why a window can stay in English even though your Mac is set to another language.

Three languages for the launcher, ten for the site

Each of the launcher’s three languages is written in its own language, so you can recognise it even when the window is in another one. The website exists in ten languages, English included. The two are not set in the same place: the launcher’s language is chosen in its Settings, not in the address of the site.

Why only three languages

Every text in the launcher exists in all three languages: a sentence without a translation does not compile. Adding a language is therefore not a matter of translating a menu, but every window, every button and every error message. That is the reason for the short list, not a decision to ignore players.

Where to set the language

Open Settings with the gear icon, at the top right of the home screen. In the Application card, the Language row offers four choices: Auto, English, Français and Tiếng Việt. The choice applies to the launcher’s windows at once, with no restart.

The setting is kept in the launcher’s configuration, so there is no need to reinstall the app to change it.

Auto follows your Mac, in the order of its list

Auto does not look at your Mac’s language as one block. The launcher goes through the macOS language list in the order you arranged it and takes the first language it has. If none of the three is in the list, it shows English.

In practice, a Mac in English stays in English. A list that starts with Polish and then French ends up in French, because Polish is not translated. A Mac in German or Dutch with neither French nor Vietnamese in its list shows English.

What Android takes from it

The launcher does not stop at its own windows. It sets the same language inside the Android device, so that its interface and settings appear in that language. With no other setting, Android takes the launcher’s language.

The change waits for the next start of the device, though. When the language no longer matches, the launcher restarts the device from cold to apply it, and the screen announces it with “Switching the device to the chosen language (about a minute)”.

What the language sets, and what it does not

The launcher’s language sets its windows, its messages and its buttons. It also sets the format of the dates shown on the home screen.

The game’s language is not always the launcher’s: this article does not describe it, and should not be used as a guide for it.

As long as the row stays on Auto, a change to the language list in macOS is only picked up the next time the launcher opens. Nothing else to set: Auto reads the list again at every launch.

A window that stays in English

The most common cause is your Mac’s language list. If your main language is none of English, French or Vietnamese, Auto falls back to English, even if you read French as a second language. Choose Français in the Language row: a manual choice takes priority over the list.

A window that stays in the old language after an explicit choice is not expected. First check that the Language row shows the choice you want: it is the one that decides.

Typing is a separate matter

The language changes nothing about how keys are read inside the device. On a French keyboard, the AZERTY typing guide explains how each key is recognised, and why some do not produce the expected character.

If nothing changes

Start with the Language row, then restart the device: Android receives its language at startup. If the device keeps the old language anyway, the support guide says what to send, so nobody has to guess the cause on your side.

Frequently asked questions