Not really related to the web APIs, but since Chrome/Chromium has a
pre-LLM language detector (cld3?), I get curious about how TFLite and
that one compare? Could we drop one or the other in favour of the best
one? If not now, maybe in a reasonable future timeline?
/Daniel
On 2026-08-21 02:38, 'Jaewon Lee' via blink-dev wrote:
Hi blink-dev,
We are posting a quick update regarding the previously sent Intent to
Prototype for the LanguageDetector and Translator APIs on Android.
We have split LanguageDetector and Translator into separate
ChromeStatus entries to decouple their execution paths:
* *LanguageDetector API on Android:* Now tracked independently at
https://chromestatus.com/feature/5087964794322944?gate=5112297327558656<https://chromestatus.com/feature/5087964794322944?gate=5112297327558656>
and progressing using Chrome's existing renderer-side TFLite model.
* *Translator API on Android:* Will continue to be tracked under the
existing entry at
https://chromestatus.com/feature/5106126157905920<https://chromestatus.com/feature/5106126157905920>.
On Wednesday, July 29, 2026 at 2:17:23 PM UTC-7 Jaewon Lee wrote:
Contact emails
[email protected]
Explainer
https://github.com/webmachinelearning/translation-api
<https://github.com/webmachinelearning/translation-api>
Specification
https://webmachinelearning.github.io/translation-api
<https://webmachinelearning.github.io/translation-api>
Summary
Exposes the LanguageDetector and Translator JavaScript Web APIs on
Chrome for Android (Clank). This allows web applications to detect
text languages and perform text translation locally on mobile
devices using fast, privacy-preserving, and offline-capable
on-device machine learning models without relying on cloud
endpoints or increasing site download size.
Blink component
https://issues.chromium.org/issues?q=componentid:1583316
Web Feature ID
Translator <https://webstatus.dev/features/translator>
Languagedetector <https://webstatus.dev/features/languagedetector>
Motivation
Exposing the Language Detector API and Translator API on Chrome
for Android allows web applications to perform fast,
privacy-preserving, and offline-capable text processing directly
within mobile browsers. Language detection and translation are
complementary capabilities in real-world web applications—such as
chat apps, comment streams, and social feeds—where developers must
first identify an unknown input language before translating it.
Routing these APIs to platform-native machine learning engines
eliminates reliance on cloud translation endpoints or heavy
third-party scripts, enabling seamless on-device AI capabilities
while establishing feature parity across desktop and mobile web
platforms.
Initial public proposal
Translator I2S:
https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/eCE8jIW2auo
<https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/eCE8jIW2auo>
Language Detector I2S:
https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/sWcHBe9wpbo
<https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/blink-dev/c/sWcHBe9wpbo>
Goals for experimentation
Demonstrate implementability of these APIs using Android's ML Kit
framework
Requires code in //chrome?
True
Requires browser-layer code in
//chrome/browser/on_device_translation and Java/JNI glue in
//chrome/android to interface with Android ML Kit system services
and manage Play Feature Delivery dynamic module downloads.
Tracking bug
https://crbug.com/428227642 <https://crbug.com/428227642>
Estimated milestones
No milestones specified
Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status
https://chromestatus.com/feature/5106126157905920?gate=5168017576165376
<https://chromestatus.com/feature/5106126157905920?gate=5168017576165376>
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