RevenueCat uses ChatGPT to translate their SDK and you can tell it's completely wrong.

Note: When I say ChatGPT I mean any non-human translation tool (Claude, Google Translate, DeepL, etc).

Update: Josh & Andy from RevenueCat replied. They didn't use ChatGPT, but contracted a vendor (who used Google Translate anyway).

Original post:

Just discovered that RevenueCat was probably never used in France, or at least their paywalls.

I'm setting it up with your usual monthly/annual sub and a lifetime offer for Klewos, my language app. In English, the wordings are "Monthly, annual & lifetime". Makes sense. Let's see in French... "Mensuel, annuel", so far so good, but then how did they translate the word "Lifetime"?

They used "Durée de vie" which means life expectancy, lifespan. Or in a very literal translation of "time of life".

This is obviously wrong. So I looked at their community forum and I discovered someone having the same issue with their Chinese translations. Literal, nonsensical translations.

Now we know that a company which raised a total of 68 million dollars would obviously use ChatGPT (or Google Translate, DeepL, etc) as their translator instead of paying a native on Fiverr. Who wouldn't?

Maybe they have so many lines to translate that it would cost them over 100$ in translation fees, right? So I checked their repo.

Well, it gets worse...

- First, the SDK is set up to use Canadian French, there is no default/universal French.

- Then, I see a total of 24 keys to translate... It's like a 3$ job on Fiverr.

- And of course, it's not the only mistranslation. How was "OK" translated? With "D'ACCORD". THE CAP LOCK IS ANOTHER PROOF. IT'S GREAT, NOT AGGRESSIVE AT ALL. Also, keeping "OK" would have been a much better translation in French.

- "Terms & conditions" is called conditions générales d'utilisation (aka CGU) in French, not "termes et conditions" another literal translation.

- "Something went wrong" is of course translated literally and it sounds silly.

Dear poor devs, don't use ChatGPT or Google Translate BLINDLY to translate your apps, even less your public SDKs. Unless you want to sound unprofessional.

And dear rich devs, pay someone to translate your app. I swear, it won't affect your wallet and you will still be rich.