Get the current language in device

I've checked the Locale methods on my Android 4.1.2 device, and the results:

Locale.getDefault().getLanguage()       ---> en      
Locale.getDefault().getISO3Language()   ---> eng 
Locale.getDefault().getCountry()        ---> US 
Locale.getDefault().getISO3Country()    ---> USA 
Locale.getDefault().getDisplayCountry() ---> United States 
Locale.getDefault().getDisplayName()    ---> English (United States) 
Locale.getDefault().toString()          ---> en_US
Locale.getDefault().getDisplayLanguage()---> English
Locale.getDefault().toLanguageTag()     ---> en-US

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If you want to get the selected language of your device, this might help you:

Locale.getDefault().getDisplayLanguage();

You can use Locale.getDefault().getLanguage(); to get the usual language code (e.g. "de", "en")

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What worked for me was:

Resources.getSystem().getConfiguration().locale;

Resources.getSystem() returns a global shared Resources object that provides access to only system resources (no application resources), and is not configured for the current screen (can not use dimension units, does not change based on orientation, etc).

Because getConfiguration.locale has now been deprecated, the preferred way to get the primary locale in Android Nougat is:

Resources.getSystem().getConfiguration().getLocales().get(0);

To guarantee compatibility with the previous Android versions a possible solution would be a simple check:

Locale locale;
if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
    locale = Resources.getSystem().getConfiguration().getLocales().get(0);
} else {
    //noinspection deprecation
    locale = Resources.getSystem().getConfiguration().locale;
}

Update

Starting with support library 26.1.0 you don't need to check the Android version as it offers a convenient method backward compatible getLocales().

Simply call:

ConfigurationCompat.getLocales(Resources.getSystem().getConfiguration());

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You can 'extract' the language from the current locale. You can extract the locale via the standard Java API, or by using the Android Context. For instance, the two lines below are equivalent:

String locale = context.getResources().getConfiguration().locale.getDisplayName();
String locale = java.util.Locale.getDefault().getDisplayName();

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To save others time and/or confusion I wanted to share that I have tried the two alternatives proposed by Johan Pelgrim above and on my device they are equivalent - whether or not the default location is changed.

So my device's default setting is English(United Kindom) and in this state as expected both Strings in Johan's answer give the same result. If I then change the locale in the phone settings (say to italiano(Italia)) and re-run then both Strings in Johan's answer give the locale as italiano(Italia).

Therefore I believe Johan's original post to be correct and gregm's comment to be incorrect.

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As described in Locale reference the best way to get language is:

Locale.getDefault().getLanguage()

this method returns string with language id according to ISO 639-1 standart

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You can use this

boolean isLang = Locale.getDefault().getLanguage().equals("xx");

when "xx" is any language code like "en", "fr", "sp", "ar" .... and so on

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if API level is 24 or above, use LocaleList.getDefault().get(0).getLanguage() else use Locale.getDefault.getLanguage()

private fun getSystemLocale() = if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
    LocaleList.getDefault().get(0).language
} else {
    Locale.getDefault().language
}

reference: https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/multilingual-support

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This solution worked for me. This will return you the android device's language (not the app's local language)

String locale = getApplicationContext().getResources().getConfiguration().locale.getLanguage();

This will return "en" or "de" or "fr" or whatever your device language is set to.

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To add to Johan Pelgrim's answer

context.getResources().getConfiguration().locale
Locale.getDefault()

are equivalent because android.text.format.DateFormat class uses both interchangeably, e.g.

private static String zeroPad(int inValue, int inMinDigits) {
    return String.format(Locale.getDefault(), "%0" + inMinDigits + "d", inValue);
}

and

public static boolean is24HourFormat(Context context) {
    String value = Settings.System.getString(context.getContentResolver(),
            Settings.System.TIME_12_24);

    if (value == null) {
        Locale locale = context.getResources().getConfiguration().locale;

    // ... snip the rest ...
}

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You can try to get locale from system resources:

PackageManager packageManager = context.getPackageManager();
Resources resources = packageManager.getResourcesForApplication("android");
String language = resources.getConfiguration().locale.getLanguage();

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If you want to check a current language, use the answer of @Sarpe (@Thorbear):

val language = ConfigurationCompat.getLocales(Resources.getSystem().configuration)?.get(0)?.language
// Check here the language.
val format = if (language == "ru") "d MMMM yyyy г." else "d MMMM yyyy"
val longDateFormat = SimpleDateFormat(format, Locale.getDefault())

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public void GetDefaultLanguage( ) {
    try {
        String langue = Locale.getDefault().toString(); //        ---> en_US
        /*
        Log.i("TAG", Locale.getDefault().getLanguage() ); //       ---> en
        Log.i("TAG", Locale.getDefault().getISO3Language()  ); //  ---> eng
        Log.i("TAG", Locale.getDefault().getCountry()  ); //       ---> US
        Log.i("TAG", Locale.getDefault().getISO3Country()  ); //   ---> USA
        Log.i("TAG", Locale.getDefault().getDisplayCountry() ); // ---> United States
        Log.i("TAG", Locale.getDefault().getDisplayName() ); //    ---> English (United States)
        Log.i("TAG", Locale.getDefault().toString()   ); //        ---> en_US
        Log.i("TAG", Locale.getDefault().getDisplayLanguage() ); //---> English 
        */

        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP) {
            langue = Locale.getDefault().toLanguageTag(); //     ---> en-US
            url_Api = getUrlMicrosoftLearn(langue);
            Log.i("TAG", url_Api );
            Log.i("TAG", langue );
        }else{
            langue = langue.replace("_","-"); //     ---> en-US
            url_Api = getUrlMicrosoftLearn(langue);
            Log.i("TAG", url_Api );
            Log.i("TAG", langue );
        }
    }catch (Exception ex) {
        Log.i("TAG", "Exception:GetDefaultLanguage()", ex);
    }
}

public String getUrlMicrosoftLearn(String langue) {
    return "https://docs.microsoft.com/"+langue+"/learn";
}

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Answers above don't distinguish between simple chinese and traditinal chinese. Locale.getDefault().toString() works which returns "zh_CN", "zh_TW", "en_US" and etc.

References to : https://developer.android.com/reference/java/util/Locale.html, ISO 639-1 is OLD.

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You can use this code to find out keyboard current

InputMethodManager imm = (InputMethodManager) getSystemService(Context.INPUT_METHOD_SERVICE);
InputMethodSubtype ims = imm.getCurrentInputMethodSubtype();
String locale = ims.getLocale();

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If you choose a language you can't type this Greek may be helpful.

getDisplayLanguage().toString() = English
getLanguage().toString() = en 
getISO3Language().toString() = eng
getDisplayLanguage()) = English
getLanguage() = en
getISO3Language() = eng

Now try it with Greek

getDisplayLanguage().toString() = Ελληνικά
getLanguage().toString() = el
getISO3Language().toString() = ell
getDisplayLanguage()) = Ελληνικά
getLanguage() = el
getISO3Language() = ell

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public class LocalUtils {

    private static final String LANGUAGE_CODE_ENGLISH = "en";


    // returns application language eg: en || fa ...
    public static String getAppLanguage() {
        return Locale.getDefault().getLanguage();
    }

    // returns device language eg: en || fa ...
    public static String getDeviceLanguage() {
        return ConfigurationCompat.getLocales(Resources.getSystem().getConfiguration()).get(0).getLanguage();
    }

    public static boolean isDeviceEnglish() {
        return getDeviceLanguage().equals(new Locale(LANGUAGE_CODE_ENGLISH).getLanguage());
    }

    public static boolean isAppEnglish() {
        return getAppLanguage().equals(new Locale(LANGUAGE_CODE_ENGLISH).getLanguage());
    }


}

Log.i("AppLanguage: ",     LocalUtils.getAppLanguage());
Log.i("DeviceLanguage: ",  LocalUtils.getDeviceLanguage());
Log.i("isDeviceEnglish: ", String.valueOf(LocalUtils.isDeviceEnglish()));
Log.i("isAppEnglish: ",    String.valueOf(LocalUtils.isAppEnglish()));

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The others have given good answers for the device language,

if you wish the app language the easiest way to do it is by adding an app_lang key to your strings.xml file, and specify the lang for each of the langs as well.

That way, if your app's default language is different from the device language, you can chose to send that as parameter for your services.

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There are two languages.

Default language of OS:

Locale.getDefault().getDisplayLanguage();

Current language of Application:

getResources().getConfiguration().locale.getDisplayLanguage();//return string

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Locale.getDefault().getDisplayLanguage()

will give you Written name for the Language, for example, English, Dutch, French

Locale.getDefault().getLanguage()

will give you language code, for instance: en, nl, fr

Both methods return String

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The correct way of getting the language of your device is the following:

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
    return context.getResources().getConfiguration().getLocales().get(0);
} else {
    return context.getResources().getConfiguration().locale;
}

Hope it helps.

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Please be careful, most of the answers here provides the language of the application. There can be cases where this application can have/set a different language than the device.

To get the actual device languages (Yes, if the user have multiple languages added in the settings, it will return all of it!)

Kotlin:

// Will return something like ["en_US", "de_DE"]
val deviceLanguages: LocaleListCompat = ConfigurationCompat.getLocales(Resources.getSystem().configuration)
// Will return the actual language in use, like "en" or "de". The first language in the above code will be the default language
val currentActiveDeviceLanguage = languages.get(0).language 

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Locale.getDefault().getLanguage() is VM language

Locale.getDefault().getLanguage()

It is the language of the current VM instance that is running your app. It is consumed by java classes such as DateFormat etc. You may need to modify this when changing app locale if you use certain java classes. If you have modified this during changing your App locale it is not the same as the language of android.

context.getConfiguration().locale.getLanguage() is Activity language

context.getConfiguration().locale.getLanguage()

This is the language set at your activity. In the latest SDK versions following is preferable

context.getConfiguration().getLocales().get(0).getLanguage()

Resources.getSystem().getConfiguration().getLocales() gives all locales that user has added at system level

This will give you the first locale that user has set at the system level.

Resources.getSystem().getConfiguration().getLocales().get(0).getLanguage()

A great number of users are multilingual so you may want to loop through Locales.

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if(Locale.getDefault().getDisplayName().equals("हिन्दी (भारत)")){
    // your code here
}

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My solution is like this

@SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
public String getCurrentLocale2() {
    return Resources.getSystem().getConfiguration().locale.getLanguage();
}

@TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.N)
public Locale getCurrentLocale() {
    getResources();
    return Resources.getSystem().getConfiguration().getLocales().get(0);
}

and then

 if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N) {
                Log.e("Locale", getCurrentLocale().getLanguage());
            } else {
                Log.e("Locale", getCurrentLocale2().toString());
            }

shown ---> en

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here is code to get device country. Compatible with all versions of android even oreo.

Solution: if user does not have sim card than get country he is used during phone setup , or current language selection.

public static String getDeviceCountry(Context context) {
    String deviceCountryCode = null;

    final TelephonyManager tm = (TelephonyManager) context.getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);

        if(tm != null) {
            deviceCountryCode = tm.getNetworkCountryIso();
        }

    if (deviceCountryCode != null && deviceCountryCode.length() <=3) {
        deviceCountryCode = deviceCountryCode.toUpperCase();
    }
    else {
        deviceCountryCode = ConfigurationCompat.getLocales(Resources.getSystem().getConfiguration()).get(0).getCountry().toUpperCase();
    }

  //  Log.d("countryCode","  : " + deviceCountryCode );
    return deviceCountryCode;
}

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Basic Kotlin answer:

Locale.getDefault().language

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If you want to do specific task for users resides in India who speaks Hindi then use below if condition

if(Locale.getDefault().getDisplayName().equals("हिन्दी (भारत)")){
 //Block executed only for the users resides in India who speaks Hindi 
}

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