Hey everyone! 👋 A quick backstory: I recently built a website for an international karting circuit in Dongguan (near Guangzhou and Hong Kong). With the Canton Fair happening nearby, tons of foreign buyers started finding the track on Google and reaching out to me directly on WhatsApp to book track time. Since they were visiting China on short business trips, almost none of them had WeChat. Suddenly, I had inquiries pouring in simultaneously from people speaking English, French, Spanish, and various Eastern European languages. And it was an absolute nightmare. Even though WhatsApp officially announced in-app translation, it still hasn't rolled out to my Android app. My workflow quickly devolved into: 1. Long-press client message -> Copy 2. Switch to Google Translate -> Paste -> Read Chinese translation 3. Type my reply in Chinese -> Translate to foreign language -> Copy 4. Switch back to WhatsApp -> Paste -> Send Keyboard translators (like WeChat Keyboard or Doubao) help a bit for typing, but you still have to manually copy incoming messages into them to read. Worse yet: juggling multiple clients speaking different languages meant constantly re-selecting target languages in translation tools. One slip-up, and you reply in French to an English buyer. My thumbs were numb, and my brain was completely fried. So I took a few days off to scratch my own itch and built an Android companion app called XiaoBoTon (小伯通). What it actually does: Zero-Tap Incoming Translation: As soon as a message arrives in WhatsApp, an AI-translated bilingual bubble automatically floats right next to the original message. No copying, no screenshotting, no app-switching. 1-Tap In-Place Outgoing Translation: You type normally (or just speak Chinese with your keyboard mic) directly in WhatsApp's native input box, tap the small floating capsule, and it instantly replaces your text with natural, fluent foreign text. Per-Contact Language Memory: The killer feature for me. It remembers each client's preferred language. When I open my French client's chat, it defaults to French; switch to an English buyer, it instantly switches to English. Zero manual language-toggle fatigue. Direct LLM Context Translation: Traditional machine translators butcher business jargon and tone. You can plug in your own API key (DeepSeek, Claude, Gemini, OpenAI) or use local offline models (Google ML Kit) when traveling without internet. I think anyone doing international trade, running Shopify/e-commerce stores, or offering local tourism/hospitality services might find this useful—especially if you're not a native polyglot and juggle diverse overseas clients. The app is live at xiaoboton.com (we have an English version on the site too, and a 30-day full free trial to test it out). Would love to hear your feedback, roast my UI, or tell me what features you'd like to see next! Thanks for reading! 🙌   submitted by   /u/nonozone [link]   [comments]