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Does anyone know a way to query the logged-in account's locale (= display language) using the Mastodon API? From what I can tell, I need this to determine whether to show the Translate button or not.
There is the "posting:default:language" preference which I've been using so far. But from what I can tell, this has nothing to do with what language Mastodon's translation feature will translate to – plus it can be null.
I looked at how the official web app is doing it, and seems like the locale is passed down using HTML instead of queried using the API:
<div
class='app-holder'
id='mastodon'
data-props='{"locale:"en"}'`>
Leaves me wondering: Is there an API endpoint that gives me the user's locale, or do I have to scrape this information from the HTML?
For reference: The web frontend determines whether to show the translation button like this:
this.props.onTranslate
&& this.context.identity.signedIn
&& ['public', 'unlisted']
.includes(status.get('visibility'))
&& status.get('contentHtml').length > 0
&& targetLanguages
?.includes(intl.locale.replace(/[_-].*/, ''));
…with `intl.locale` being what's passed in from `data-props`.
@megalodon The current way its done here, its by this piece of code: !item.status.language.equalsIgnoreCase(item.session.preferences.postingDefaultLanguage)
@moshidon yeah, as far as i can remember, i wrote that, but, again, users can set their default posting language to any language, even if it's not their display language (aka locale) - and it's null by default
@megalodon
You can also use the device locale.
@apps Thanks! But uhm, where? The `accounts/verify_credentials` method doesn't have locale information anywhere from what I can tell :/
@megalodon
In source object attached to account reply. There is language inside.
@apps Ah, I see! Appears to just be the default posting language again (which can also be queried using /preferences) - not the display language/locale which is also used for the translation, unfortunately
@apps Would do that as a last resort, but I can never be sure that it's the correct one and that translation will work… Kind of a shame the translation endpoint doesn't take a target language parameter
@megalodon
We use device locale for displaying or not this icon.
@megalodon
LibreTranslate supports auto detect language. So it is only for displaying the button.
@apps If I do that, I could still have cases like this:
* My Mastodon account is set to English
* My phone could be set to German
* Megalodon would display a translate button for English posts, but not for German posts
* Mastodon would try to translate English posts to English
…all because I display the translate button for the wrong language. I think I might actually go for the HTML scraping approach to get the right language 
@megalodon
Yes but from the api endpoint, you can get what languages an account uses for posting.
If a message does not target these languages, the app displays a translate button.
@apps True, but at least using the Mastodon translation endpoint, querying one's default posting language doesn't really work, as it's (if it is set at all) usually set to a language that's different from the display language. Since the display language is what Mastodon will translate to, this creates the same edge cases as with the differing device language. Also, my brain is breaking thinking about so many languages
@megalodon also we use our own server https://translate.fedilab.app so it is not limited to instances that support translations.
You can of course use it for your app.