Published: April 24, 2026
We're excited to announce the launch of the manifest localization feature in Chrome and Edge 148. This step forward for web app developers and their global audiences, was implemented by the Microsoft Edge team, in collaboration with the Chrome team.
For too long, web app manifests have had no built-in support for multiple languages. This forced you to choose between a single-language experience or complex workarounds.
Manifest localization changes that by bringing simple and robust language support directly to your manifest file.
The problem: lack of language support in the manifest
Prior to Chrome and Edge 148, web app manifests only let you define one set of
fields, such as name, description, and short_name for your app. This
limitation means that your app appears with the same name and description
regardless of your user's preferred language, creating a worse experience for
non-English or multilingual audiences.
To support multiple languages, you've had to rely on intricate client-side solutions or forego localization altogether.
The solution: Manifest localization
Manifest localization is an extension to the web app manifest specification.
You can define localized values for manifest fields like name, short_name,
description, and more, by using the new _localized suffix.
For example, by providing name and name_localized, you can specify your
app's default name, and translations for different languages directly inside
your manifest.
The browser will automatically select and display the version that best matches the user's language preferences, creating a seamless multilingual experience from installation to actual usage.
Define localized fields
To use manifest localization, add fields with the _localized suffix to
your manifest.json file, defining translations by using
BCP47
language tags:
{
"lang": "en-US",
"dir": "ltr",
"name": "Color Picker",
"name_localized": {
"de": "Farbwähler",
"en": {"value": "Color Picker"},
"en-GB": {"value": "Colour Picker", "dir": "ltr"},
"fr": {"value": "Sélecteur de Couleur", "lang": "fr-CA", "dir": "ltr"},
"ar": {"value": "`منتقي` `الألوان`", "dir": "rtl"}
}
}
With this structure, a user who has their browser set to a language that matches one of the entries will see your app's name in their language. Otherwise, the default name value is used.
Currently, the web app manifest fields that are available for localization are:
nameshort_namedescriptioniconsshortcutsnameshort_namedescriptionicons
For a detailed list of localizable fields and full implementation details, see the Web App Manifest specification.
Demo
To see the manifest localization feature in action, check out our demo app in Chrome or Edge 148 or later:
Feedback
Manifest localization is available in Chrome and Microsoft Edge starting with version 148. We encourage you to experiment, provide feedback, and help us refine this feature as we move toward a more multilingual web. Try it today and let us know what you think!
Let us know your feedback by creating a new issue on the W3C manifest repo.