Localization (i18n)

Recommended stack: i18next + react-i18next for translations, with expo-localization to read the device locale.

// src/shared/config/i18n.ts
import * as Localization from "expo-localization";
import i18n from "i18next";
import { initReactI18next } from "react-i18next";

import en from "@shared/config/locales/en.json";
import es from "@shared/config/locales/es.json";

i18n.use(initReactI18next).init({
  lng: Localization.getLocales()[0]?.languageCode ?? "en",
  fallbackLng: "en",
  resources: { en: { translation: en }, es: { translation: es } },
  interpolation: { escapeValue: false },
});

export default i18n;

import { useTranslation } from "react-i18next";

const { t } = useTranslation();
<Text>{t("orders.title")}</Text>;

Conventions:

• Namespace keys by feature (orders.title, auth.login.cta) so they stay organized as the app grows.
• Use keys, not English strings, as ids. t("orders.empty") is stable; t("You have no orders") breaks the moment the copy changes.

Single-language app? Still route copy through t() with one resources block. It costs almost nothing now and means adding a second language later is dropping in another JSON file — not hunting hardcoded strings across the app.