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Windows Phone 8 Device Language Support, Microsoft Windows Store Regions and Languages

There are 128 Regional Windows Phone Stores currently available for developers to publish their apps to, and 50 languages supported on the Windows Phone 8 device.

So, how is an app developer to navigate these device supported languages and regional store languages while maximizing market reach?

windows devices

We must first draw a distinction between your app metadata and the language bundles that exist inside your app; as localized content is handled differently for both.

Localized app bundles are managed by the device and will display in any of the 50 supported languages in which they are made available. Here you can find the complete list of device supported languages and their Microsoft Language codes.

Metadata: app description, keywords and what’s new, are all managed through your developer account and are displayed in the Windows Phone regional App Stores. so, it is important to understand the correct language to display in each of these stores.

Language Code Supported Languages Windows Stores
Albanian Language Code Albanian Albania
Arabic Language Code Arabic
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Algeria
  • Bahrain
  • Egypt
  • Iraq
  • Jordan
  • Kuwait
  • Morocco
  • Oman
  • Qatar
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Tunisia
  • Yemen

The device supported language to regional store mapping, shows the default languages for each of the available 128 regional stores. It is worth noting that some languages are default for multiple regional stores, Arabic for example is the language in 13 regional stores. It is also the case that some countries have multiple regions and hence languages, Switzerland for example has 3 regional stores, French language, German language and Italian Language.

We thought you’d be interested in knowing where the different language versions of your metadata show up around the world. And as you can see from the mapping table, a little translation can go a long long way.