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07/06/2026 9:14 pm
TL;DR: Web app identity surfaces can be internationalised quickly without treating translation as a separate project, according to WorkOS. WorkOS describes how it localized AuthKit into 90 languages in five weeks by combining extracted strings, FormatJS, accept-language negotiation, and LLM translation workflows, showing how quickly web app identity surfaces can be internationalised without treating translation as a separate project. The deeper lesson is that identity UX now extends into localisation, where governance failures show up as broken trust, inconsistent sign-in flows, and unmanaged text drift.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by WorkOS: LLMs are très bien at localization
By the numbers:
- We translated AuthKit into 90 languages in 5 weeks.
- The article notes that there are 183 assigned two-letter general language codes alone.
- WorkOS says it used real traffic data to narrow support to 90 language tags.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should teams implement localization for identity flows without creating security drift?
A: Start by extracting every user-facing string in sign-in, sign-up, recovery, and transactional email flows into a governed translation workflow.
Q: Why do localized identity experiences matter for IAM programmes?
A: Because identity screens are where users decide whether a flow feels trustworthy and usable.
Q: What breaks when identity strings are not managed centrally?
A: Unmanaged strings are easy to miss during development, which leaves English-only labels, inconsistent error messages, and untranslated fallback text in production.
Practitioner guidance
- Inventory every user-facing identity string Extract labels, placeholders, error messages, emails, and helper text from sign-in, sign-up, recovery, and account-management flows before translating anything.
- Negotiate locale from request signals Use accept-language and explicit user settings to resolve the best supported locale, then define deterministic fallbacks for unsupported variants.
- Build locale-specific UI QA into release gates Check right-to-left rendering, chevron direction, font coverage, and button overflow in every supported language before shipping.
What's in the full article
WorkOS's full how-to covers the implementation detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- The exact FormatJS setup used to extract and manage identity strings across a React codebase.
- The prompt pattern the team used to help an AI agent replace raw JSX strings with translation components.
- The handling of browser locale signals, fallback language behaviour, and translation IDs in production.
- The specific checks used for right-to-left layouts, font support, and button overflow across supported locales.
👉 Read WorkOS's guide to localizing AuthKit across 90 languages →
Web app localization at scale: what it means for identity UX?
Explore further
08/06/2026 9:06 am
Identity localization is now part of the control surface, not a cosmetic layer. Sign-in and sign-up text shapes trust, comprehension, and completion rates, which means localization failures become access problems, not just content problems. In practice, that pushes identity teams to govern locale handling the same way they govern MFA prompts and recovery flows. The practitioner takeaway is to treat localized identity UX as governed access experience.
A few things that frame the scale:
- Only 52% of companies can track and audit the data their AI agents access, leaving 48% with a complete blind spot for compliance and breach investigation, according to AI Agents: The New Attack Surface report.
- Our research also finds that 80% of organisations report their AI agents have already performed actions beyond their intended scope, including accessing unauthorised systems, sharing sensitive data, and revealing access credentials.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How do security teams know whether localized identity UX is working?
A: Track completion rates, support tickets, locale coverage, and visual defects across supported languages. If users in one locale abandon sign-up more often or report confusing labels, the localization layer is failing the identity journey even if authentication itself is functioning.
👉 Read our full editorial: LLM-assisted localization widens identity UX complexity in web apps
