> They haven’t given any negative signals on our proposed Translator API (nor official positive ones).
You can consider Mozilla to be negative here. We plan to make it more clear in our counterproposal why we think it's better. On Tuesday, June 3, 2025 at 12:07:35 AM UTC+2 dbo...@chromium.org wrote: > Contact emails > > dom...@chromium.org, kenji...@chromium.org, ay...@chromium.org, > mem...@chromium.org, chris...@chromium.org > > Explainer > > https://github.com/webmachinelearning/translation-api/blob/main/README.md > > Specification > > https://webmachinelearning.github.io/translation-api/#translator-api > > Summary > > A JavaScript API to provide language translation capabilities to web > pages. Browsers are increasingly offering language translation to their > users. Such translation capabilities can also be useful to web developers. > This is especially the case when browser's built-in translation abilities > cannot help. An enterprise policy (GenAILocalFoundationalModelSettings) is > available to disable the underlying model downloading which would render > this API unavailable. > > Blink component > > Blink>AI>Translate > <https://issues.chromium.org/issues?q=customfield1222907:%22Blink%3EAI%3ETranslate%22> > > TAG review > > https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/948 > > TAG review status > > Issues addressed > TAG’s main feedback was on API naming, which has been addressed. > > Origin Trial Name > > Translator API > > Chromium Trial Name > > TranslationAPI > > Origin Trial documentation link > > https://developer.chrome.com/docs/ai/translator-api > > WebFeature UseCounter name > > kTranslator_Translate > > Risks > Interoperability and Compatibility > > This feature has definite interoperability risks, including which > languages are available across different browsers, how they are exposed, > the quality of translations, and whether developers need the translations > to be on-device or not. We can ameliorate some of these through API design, > by making it clear that various methods might fail and that a fallback is > required. Others, like translation quality, may end up as > quality-of-implementation issues, similar to other machine learning-based > APIs like shape detection. > > Gecko: No signal ( > https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/1015) > > Mozilla has published an alternate Translation API explainer > <https://github.com/mozilla/explainers/blob/main/translation.md>. We have > had ongoing discussions with Mozilla, both on-off and in the WebML > Community Group about this subject. However the status of their proposal is > unclear, as it hasn’t been presented to any community group or working > group. When previously asking their WebML CG representative about it, they > said they were monitoring the space and weren’t yet ready to present an > alternative. They haven’t given any negative signals on our proposed > Translator API (nor official positive ones). > > It is also worth noting that the mozilla/explainers proposal is strictly > less powerful than the WebML CG one we are developing. That is, theirs can > be polyfilled on top of ours, but not vice-versa. So if the proposal got > traction in the future, we could add it as well, either natively or via a > JavaScript polyfill. > > Additionally, some of the use cases that our partners have used the > translator API for during the Origin Trial are not possible with the > mozilla/explainers proposal. Some examples: > > > - > > Translating audio, in conjunction with web speech API for speech > recognition and generation > - > > Translating user search terms, including translating them away from > the user’s preferred language (E.g. prompting a Spanish speaking user on > an > English e-commerce site with: “You entered ‘zapatos’. Did you mean to > search for ‘shoes’?”) > > > WebKit: No signal ( > https://github.com/WebKit/standards-positions/issues/339) > > Web developers: Positive (https://github.com/WICG/proposals/issues/147 > )Perhaps > > Origin Trial signups have been 5x higher than what we see from typical > Origin Trials, suggesting a lot of developer and partner interest. The > survey conducted during the Origin Trial in February 2025 shows positive > quantitative feedback [1], and third-party partners have utilized the API > for various use cases [2]. > > [1] > https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1DhFC2oB4PRrchavxUY3h9U4w4hrX5DAc5LoMqhn5hnk/mobilepresent?slide=id.g349a9ada368_1_6327 > [2] https://developer.chrome.com/blog/pb-jiohotstar-translation-ai > > Other signals: > > Activation > > This feature would definitely benefit from having polyfills, backed by any > of: cloud services, lazily-loaded on-device models using WebGPU, or the web > developer's own server. We anticipate seeing an ecosystem of such polyfills > grow as more developers experiment with this API. > > > WebView application risks > > Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing APIs, such that > it has potentially high risk for Android WebView-based applications? > > None > > > Debuggability > > We have internal debugging pages which give web developers detail on > installed language packs, e.g. chrome://on-device-translation-internals/, > which may eventually be suitable to port to DevTools. > > > Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, > Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)? > > No, the initial launch focuses on desktop. In particular Windows, Mac and > Linux. However we plan to expand support to the rest of the platforms in > the future. > > Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests > <https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/testing/web_platform_tests.md> > ? > > We have added some web platform test coverage for this feature ( > https://wpt.fyi/results/ai/translator?label=experimental&label=master&aligned). > > How much we are able to test beyond the surface API is unclear, since no > specific languages are guaranteed to be supported. > > Flag name on about://flags > > translation-api > > Finch feature name > > TranslationAPI > > Rollout plan > > Will ship enabled for all users > > Requires code in //chrome? > > True > > Tracking bug > > https://issues.chromium.org/issues/322229993 > > Launch bug > > https://launch.corp.google.com/launch/4317965 > > Measurement > > kTranslator_Create > > Estimated milestones > > Shipping on desktop > > 138 > > Origin trial desktop first > > 131 > > Origin trial desktop last > > 136 > > Origin trial extension 1 end milestone > > 138 > > Anticipated spec changes > > Open questions about a feature may be a source of future web compat or > interop issues. Please list open issues (e.g. links to known github issues > in the project for the feature specification) whose resolution may > introduce web compat/interop risk (e.g., changing to naming or structure of > the API in a non-backward-compatible way). > > None > > Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status > > https://chromestatus.com/feature/5172811302961152?gate=5141071125544960 > > Links to previous Intent discussions > > Intent to Prototype: > https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/2a9d154a-dc97-495b-afda-ba643712116bn%40chromium.org > > Intent to Experiment: > https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/CAM0wra9ArjjD0u%3DpFs1W_5%3DcMk49JXs5ObQ15dNHCHt3TKSW3g%40mail.gmail.com > > Intent to Extend Experiment 1: > https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/CAO4d-SsJ_U1RBpV-sMQEACqVkWnA_R3Y%3Dk19noGCE70sPV2yAA%40mail.gmail.com > > This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status > <https://chromestatus.com/>. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "blink-dev" group. 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