Inflation Calculator 4.0 is now available on the App Store. Along with data for 2020, this update adds support for 13 new languages including Spanish, French, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, and more!
Inflation Calculator was originally released in 2014 for the US Dollar. I added support for 21 more international currencies back in 2017, but the app was still only available in English. It hasn’t taken off internationally (over 90% of downloads since then have been in English-speaking countries) but hopefully this update will help turn things around. Inflation Calculator now supports the local currency and the native language of billions more users around the world.
Localizing the app itself was actually fairly straightforward. It’s a pretty small app and the main screen has almost no text on it. Localized App Store screenshots are always pretty involved, though, because the combinatorics always explode pretty quickly. Four screenshots each for three devices (iPhone X, iPhone 8, and Apple Watch) per 19 language/region variants (e.g. different Spanish screenshots for Spain and for Mexico) is 228 screenshots! I had to plug-and-chug for the better part of two days to make all of them, but I’m really happy with how they turned out. A lot of developers solve this problem by using an automated tool like fastlane, but I tend to believe it’s impossible to beat the quality you get by doing them by-hand with design tools like Sketch and Rotato. Only time will tell if the work pays off 🤞🏻
