Implement Fallback (Sprachauswahl) if user's device language is not available

[hauf-toni]

Problem:
Currently, if a user's device language is unavailable in the app, the content is displayed in german. Defaulting to a specific language could exclude or confuse users who are not proficient in this language.

Providing a language selection screen ensures inclusivity and allows users to make their own choice. This approach improves inclusivity for users from diverse linguistic backgrounds, reduces frustration and aligns with best practices.

Proposed Solution:
When a user's device language is not supported, the language selection should be triggered. Once the user selects a language, their choice should be saved locally (if possible) to avoid showing the screen again unnecessarily.

Alternatives:
Keep German as Fallback/Use English instead.

Additional context
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[steffenkleinle]

@hauf-toni this is both for native and web, right?
On web, we already have the language selection once you navigate to a city (i.e. we dont have it on the landing/city selection page, the disclaimer and so on).

• Possible problem on web: If you navigate to the landing page with a not supported language, you are shown a language selection. If you then select a language and then select to a city where this language is not available, you will be presented with another language selection. I can imagine that this would be confusing/frustrating for users
• Possible problem on native: The UI language does not necessarily equal the content language. We currently have a language selection for the content language upon navigation to a city that does not support the currently selected language. It seems like the issue is more about the UI/app language. Adding separate language selection for that could be confusing/frustrating as well.
  What do you think?

[hauf-toni]

Thanks for your thorough insights and highlighting these challenges @steffenkleinle this would actually be for both native and web (although for native I don't think it would be a problem for more than once, right?).

A: This is indeed quite tricky. I think it would be useful to provide a bit more context for the second language selection, e.g. “The language you have selected is currently not available. Please select another language.” Could we follow this flow and show it to the user?

B: Could you explain why we currently have the option of displaying two different languages at the same time, e.g. headlines in farsi and text in german?

[steffenkleinle]

Thanks for your thorough insights and highlighting these challenges @steffenkleinle this would actually be for both native and web (although for native I don't think it would be a problem for more than once, right?).

Correct, this would only be the case for the initial app start.

A: This is indeed quite tricky. I think it would be useful to provide a bit more context for the second language selection, e.g. “The language you have selected is currently not available. Please select another language.”
How about: "The language you have selected is currently not available in /supported by ..."

Could we follow this flow and show it to the user?

Yes, we could definitely do that.

B: Could you explain why we currently have the option of displaying two different languages at the same time, e.g. headlines in farsi and text in german?

We assume that a user has no reason to change the UI language (i.e. header, menus, settings, ...) to anything but the device language. Coupling the UI language with the content language would make it harder for users with a language that we support in the app, but the city does not provide translations for to use the app. Example: User has a device with Farsi and lives in Musterstadt, which does not support Farsi. Therefore, the user has to change another language (for example English) to view the content of Musterstadt. This also changes all the controls and UI elements in the app to English, which could also been shown in the easier understandable language Farsi.

Obviously, this is only helpful if the users language is available at all, otherwise the user will be forced to use the fallback language (German) all over the app without the possibility to choose that language. So perhaps we should keep the two language system but make both configurable?