iPhone: UISwitch text in non-English language is I/O instead of ON/OFF in some languages

Question

Hi All,

UISwitch text shows ON/OFF in English. When I switch language to Japanese, UISwitch shows localized version for ON/OFF text. But, when I switch language to German, UISwitch shows I/O symbols instead of German-localized ON/OFF text. Why is not the behavior consistent across all non-English languages? Is this a bug?

Please let me know if you have any info on this. Thanks.

Answer 1

I think the problem is that in some languages these words are just to big to fit into the button. This has also to do with cultural background. While, as native german, I can't understand why they didn't use "An/Aus", I/O may have stronger symbolics.

In the end, this shouldn't worry you. These things are consistent all over iOS. User might be confused if it looked different...