How automated localization allows Instasize's team to focus on what matters – their product

Meet Instasize – a photo and video editing app used and loved by social content creators worldwide. The company was founded back in 2012 by three college friends, and since then it has seen rapid growth both in revenue and in users. 

Instasize's suite of mobile editing tools offers a wide variety of options ranging from basic photo filters to advanced video editing features, and more. The app makes visual creation easy and fun, allowing its users to shine a light on their artistry and post high-quality social media content. 

With more than 200 million downloads worldwide, automating its translation and localization workflow has played a significant role in the company's growth. 

Lokalise had a chat with Omar Arambula, one of Instasize's Co-founders and the company's current COO, to explore the benefits it has seen since implementing Lokalise in its day-to-day operations.

Localizing products to increase revenue 

Currently, Instasize localizes its mobile editing tools to more than 20 languages. Omar explains that entering a new market and offering a translated app adds about 20% to their revenue compared to doing so with an app in English only. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to invest the company's time and money in high-quality localization. 

Instasize's team understood the necessity of translating their tools early on. However, the company's initial translation and localization flow relied solely on manual work, which soon proved inefficient.  

According to Omar, before using Lokalise, they would email translation files to their in-house translators, who would add the necessary content and then send them back. Even though the system seemed promising at first, it was only a matter of time before the first errors materialized in the form of lost files or a lack of consistency in content edits.

“Translation files were often misplaced or edited chaotically, messing up the whole system. Plus, we had to figure out who was responsible for the error to fix it properly, which wasn't always fast. Luckily, we found out about Lokalise right on time.”

Saving time and energy for essential tasks

Instasize had never heard of localization and translation software before, and Lokalise was their first discovery. Back when Instasize started to use Lokalise, the localization management software was relatively new on the market and its concept was pitched to the Instasize team by Lokalise's founders. 

“The time-saving aspect was a strong selling point. However, the decision to start using Lokalise was a no-brainer for us. We had already dealt with the headache of manually managing translation strings within different builds, so the change towards an automated solution was more than logical.”

Using Lokalise to deal with localization not only saved time but also enabled Instasize's team to devote their energy to bettering and developing the product. 

“Our employees could finally do what they're best at. It was time and energy saving to everyone, whether it was an app engineer or a translator.”

Asked how much time exactly Instasize's team has saved thanks to Lokalise, Omar gives a personal example. Without the software, he spent at least ten hours per month managing translations, which is a minimum of 120 hours per year saved for Omar alone. 

Less hassle and fewer user complaints

Instasize has integrated with Lokalise's SDK to provide OTA (over-the-air) updates, which makes updating the translations hassle-free. The company's translators also benefit from the localization management software – providing the necessary translations and updating strings is quick and painless. 

“Before Lokalise, we were regularly updating our app in 6 languages. Even though we theoretically had translated Instasize in more languages, it was just too much hassle to take care of them all. Now with Lokalise in place, we're easily able to keep up with 20+ translated versions of our app.”

Omar adds that before using Lokalise, Instasize received many complaints about translations –  users often sent suggestions and pointed out mistakes. 

“Lokalise brought consistency into our translation process and added quality to the outcome. We rarely receive user complaints about translations now.”

Automated processes undoubtedly allow any business to focus more on the essential component – the quality of their products and services. Omar says that without Lokalise the company wouldn't be able to devote as much energy to their customers and product as needed. Asked if there was anything else he wanted to highlight from Instasize's experience with Lokalise, he praised the software's client services:

“Lokalise's customer support is another reason why companies would want to choose this software – we always receive fast answers to our questions and concerns. Lokalise is a ten out of ten localization management tool.”