Set Locale programmatically

My app supports 3 (soon 4) languages. Since several locales are quite similar I'd like to give the user the option to change locale in my application, for instance an Italian person might prefer Spanish over English.

Is there a way for the user to select among the locales that are available for the application and then change what locale is used? I don't see it as a problem to set locale for each Activity since it is a simple task to perform in a base class.

Solution 1:

Hope this help(in onResume):

Locale locale = new Locale("ru");
Locale.setDefault(locale);
Configuration config = getBaseContext().getResources().getConfiguration();
config.locale = locale;
getBaseContext().getResources().updateConfiguration(config,
      getBaseContext().getResources().getDisplayMetrics());

Solution 2:

For people still looking for this answer, since configuration.locale was deprecated from API 24, you can now use:

configuration.setLocale(locale);

Take in consideration that the minSkdVersion for this method is API 17.

Full example code:

@SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
private void setLocale(Locale locale){
    SharedPrefUtils.saveLocale(locale); // optional - Helper method to save the selected language to SharedPreferences in case you might need to attach to activity context (you will need to code this)
    Resources resources = getResources();
    Configuration configuration = resources.getConfiguration();
    DisplayMetrics displayMetrics = resources.getDisplayMetrics();
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN_MR1){
        configuration.setLocale(locale);
    } else{
        configuration.locale=locale;
    }
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT > Build.VERSION_CODES.N){
        getApplicationContext().createConfigurationContext(configuration);
    } else {
        resources.updateConfiguration(configuration,displayMetrics);
    }
}

Don't forget that, if you change the locale with a running Activity, you will need to restart it for the changes to take effect.

EDIT 11th MAY 2018

As from @CookieMonster's post, you might have problems keeping the locale change in higher API versions. If so, add the following code to your Base Activity (BaseActivity extends AppCompatActivity / other activities) so that you update the context locale on every Activity creation:

@Override
protected void attachBaseContext(Context base) {
     super.attachBaseContext(updateBaseContextLocale(base));
}

private Context updateBaseContextLocale(Context context) {
    String language = SharedPrefUtils.getSavedLanguage(); // Helper method to get saved language from SharedPreferences
    Locale locale = new Locale(language);
    Locale.setDefault(locale);

    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT > Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
        return updateResourcesLocale(context, locale);
    }

    return updateResourcesLocaleLegacy(context, locale);
}

@TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.N_MR1)
private Context updateResourcesLocale(Context context, Locale locale) {
    Configuration configuration = new Configuration(context.getResources().getConfiguration());
    configuration.setLocale(locale);
    return context.createConfigurationContext(configuration);
}

@SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
private Context updateResourcesLocaleLegacy(Context context, Locale locale) {
    Resources resources = context.getResources();
    Configuration configuration = resources.getConfiguration();
    configuration.locale = locale;
    resources.updateConfiguration(configuration, resources.getDisplayMetrics());
    return context;
}

If you use this, don't forget to save the language to SharedPreferences when you set the locale with setLocale(locale)

EDIT 7th APRIL 2020

You might be experiencing issues in Android 6 and 7, and this happens due to an issue in the androidx libraries while handling the night mode. For this you will also need to override applyOverrideConfiguration in your base activity and update the configuration's locale in case a fresh new locale one is created.

Sample code:

@Override
public void applyOverrideConfiguration(Configuration overrideConfiguration) {
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP && Build.VERSION.SDK_INT <= Build.VERSION_CODES.N_MR1) {
        // update overrideConfiguration with your locale  
        setLocale(overrideConfiguration) // you will need to implement this
    }
    super.applyOverrideConfiguration(overrideConfiguration);
} 

Solution 3:

I had a problem with setting locale programmatically with devices that has Android OS N and higher. For me the solution was writing this code in my base activity:

(if you don't have a base activity then you should make these changes in all of your activities)

@Override
protected void attachBaseContext(Context base) {
    super.attachBaseContext(updateBaseContextLocale(base));
}

private Context updateBaseContextLocale(Context context) {
    String language = SharedPref.getInstance().getSavedLanguage();
    Locale locale = new Locale(language);
    Locale.setDefault(locale);

    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
        return updateResourcesLocale(context, locale);
    }

    return updateResourcesLocaleLegacy(context, locale);
}

@TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.N)
private Context updateResourcesLocale(Context context, Locale locale) {
    Configuration configuration = context.getResources().getConfiguration();
    configuration.setLocale(locale);
    return context.createConfigurationContext(configuration);
}

@SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
private Context updateResourcesLocaleLegacy(Context context, Locale locale) {
    Resources resources = context.getResources();
    Configuration configuration = resources.getConfiguration();
    configuration.locale = locale;
    resources.updateConfiguration(configuration, resources.getDisplayMetrics());
    return context;
}

note that here it is not enough to call

createConfigurationContext(configuration)

you also need to get the context that this method returns and then to set this context in the attachBaseContext method.