String, our app for localization, is shutting down on August 30, 2013.
 

Why are we shutting down String?

In short: Startups have to focus, and String was always a second priority. It didn’t receive the resources and love that it needed to succeed. Additionally, there are now new, better solutions provided by our API partners.
 

The history of String

We launched String in 2009. At that time, there weren’t many good solutions for developers localizing websites and apps. So we built String to meet our own needs, to solve the problems we had localizing our own app.

Our vision was for a simple tool that would show the progress of localization of each area of a website. The first release of String was a real “MVP” that handled that problem, and not a lot more. Gradually through 2011 we added the ability to order human translation within String (powered by our own API) and a few convenience features and file formats.
 

Changing focus

Meanwhile, our Translation API was becoming more and more popular, which meant our product team had to be 100% focused on scalability, reliability and quality of translation within our core service. So we started to see other apps launch, offering all the things we had wanted to build into String, but never had the chance — like in-context editing, Git integration, a proxy server and more. While we would have loved to see String flourish with these kinds of new features, instead it stayed stagnant due to limited resources.
 

The happy ending

But it’s not all doom and gloom. We always hoped that startups would build cool tools on our API, and now dozens of great companies have. Phrase Strings, Transifex and Dakwak (to name a few) have built localization platforms that do a better job than String, but also allow users to order seamlessly from Gengo.

This is the best of both worlds for Gengo, because we can focus on our API while allowing great companies to flourish. And it’s the best of both worlds for the user, because they can choose a localization tool they like, that will be supported and improve over time.

We’re now officially shutting down String and offering our users the opportunity to transition to one of these new platforms. We’re sorry to see String go, but we hope you agree, the future looks bright anyway. Thanks for using String, and have a great time with whichever new solution you choose. If you’re a String user, and you need any assistance in your transition to a new service, just email us at support@gengo.com and we’ll be happy to help.