Capacitor ML Kit Language Identification Plugin

Unofficial Capacitor plugin for ML Kit Language Identification.[^1]

Use Cases

The Language Identification plugin determines the language of a string of text directly on the device, for example:

• Localization: Detect the language of user-generated content to display it correctly.
• Translation: Determine the source language before translating a text.
• Content routing: Route messages to the right agent or bot based on their language.
• Smart Reply: Check whether a conversation is in a supported language before generating reply suggestions.

Compatibility

Installation

You can use our AI-Assisted Setup to install the plugin. Add the Capawesome Skills to your AI tool using the following command:

npx skills add capawesome-team/skills --skill capacitor-plugins

Then use the following prompt:

Use the `capacitor-plugins` skill from `capawesome-team/skills` to install the `@capacitor-mlkit/language-identification` plugin in my project.

If you prefer Manual Setup, install the plugin by running the following commands and follow the platform-specific instructions below:

npm install @capacitor-mlkit/language-identification
npx cap sync

Attention: This plugin only supports CocoaPods for iOS dependency management. Swift Package Manager (SPM) is not supported for the ML Kit SDK, see this comment.

Android

Variables

If needed, you can define the following project variable in your app’s variables.gradle file to change the default version of the dependency:

• $mlkitLanguageIdVersion version of com.google.mlkit:language-id (default: 17.0.6)

This can be useful if you encounter dependency conflicts with other plugins in your project.

iOS

Minimum Deployment Target

Make sure to set the deployment target in your ios/App/Podfile to at least 15.5:

platform :ios, '15.5'

Configuration

No configuration required for this plugin.

Demo

A working example can be found here: robingenz/capacitor-mlkit-plugin-demo

Usage

The language identification model ships with the SDK, so no model download is required.

import { LanguageIdentification } from '@capacitor-mlkit/language-identification';

const identifyLanguage = async () => {
  const { language } = await LanguageIdentification.identifyLanguage({
    text: 'Wie geht es dir?',
  });
  // `language` is a BCP-47 tag (e.g. `de`) or `und` if no language met the threshold.
  return language;
};

const identifyPossibleLanguages = async () => {
  const { identifiedLanguages } =
    await LanguageIdentification.identifyPossibleLanguages({
      text: 'Wie geht es dir?',
    });
  return identifiedLanguages;
};

The returned language is a BCP-47 language tag such as en, de or zh. If no language could be identified with sufficient confidence, the value und (undetermined) is returned.

API

• identifyLanguage(...)
• identifyPossibleLanguages(...)
• Interfaces

identifyLanguage(...)

identifyLanguage(options: IdentifyLanguageOptions) => Promise<IdentifyLanguageResult>

Identify the most likely language of the given text.

Only available on Android and iOS.

Returns: Promise<IdentifyLanguageResult>

Since: 8.2.0

identifyPossibleLanguages(...)

identifyPossibleLanguages(options: IdentifyPossibleLanguagesOptions) => Promise<IdentifyPossibleLanguagesResult>

Identify all possible languages of the given text with their confidence.

Only available on Android and iOS.

Returns: Promise<IdentifyPossibleLanguagesResult>

Since: 8.2.0

Interfaces

IdentifyLanguageResult

IdentifyLanguageOptions

IdentifyPossibleLanguagesResult

IdentifiedLanguage

IdentifyPossibleLanguagesOptions

FAQ

Which platforms are supported by this plugin?

The plugin is available on Android and iOS. The identifyLanguage(...) and identifyPossibleLanguages(...) methods are only available on Android and iOS, so there is no web implementation.

Which languages are supported?

The model can identify more than 100 languages. The returned value is a BCP-47 language tag.

What does und mean?

und stands for undetermined. It is returned when no language could be identified with a confidence above the configured threshold.

Do I need to download a model?

No. The language identification model is bundled with the SDK, so no model download or management is required.

How can I change the confidence threshold?

Both methods accept an optional confidenceThreshold (between 0.0 and 1.0). The default is 0.5 for identifyLanguage(...) and 0.01 for identifyPossibleLanguages(...).

Can I install this plugin using Swift Package Manager?

No, this plugin only supports CocoaPods for iOS dependency management because the ML Kit SDK itself does not support Swift Package Manager. Also make sure to set the deployment target in your ios/App/Podfile to at least 15.5 (see Installation).

Related Plugins

• Translation: Translate text once its language has been identified.
• Smart Reply: Generate reply suggestions for a conversation.
• ML Kit Digital Ink Recognition: Recognize handwriting, then identify the language of the recognized text.
• GenAI Speech Recognition: Transcribe speech, then identify the language of the transcript.

Terms & Privacy

This plugin uses the Google ML Kit:

• Terms & Privacy
• Android Data Disclosure
• iOS Data Disclosure

Newsletter

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Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md.

License

See LICENSE.

[^1]: This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or approved by Google LLC or any of their affiliates or subsidiaries.