February 16, 2026
Plural Wars: Unicode vs the world
MessageFormat: Unicode standard for localizable message strings
A bold fix for messy app text—cheers, fears, and 'just use Fluent' vibes
TLDR: Unicode made MessageFormat a recommended standard for app text that adapts to language rules. Comments split between skeptics calling it infeasible and fans praising fewer UI hacks, with many comparing it to Mozilla Fluent and demanding clear migration paths before betting on wide adoption.
The Unicode crew just made MessageFormat—a standard for app text that adapts to numbers, gender, and grammar—officially recommended inside CLDR. They’re inviting feedback and contributions, but the comments erupted. Skeptics led with rocqua’s “great in concept, and totally infeasible,” then conceded Unicode might pull it off. Optimists like BoppreH praised the meeting notes and example syntax as a solid balance. The vibe: big ambition colliding with “isn’t this just Mozilla Fluent?” energy.
Comic relief: the humble “No results / 1 result / {n} results.” jp1016 cheered that MessageFormat eliminates those if/switch gymnastics, and reminded everyone plurals go feral outside English. The Gettext crowd (bmn__) demanded migration answers: What’s the .po file here? How does gender work? Why switch at all? Meanwhile, 1116574 dropped the spicy “Looks alot like mozilla’s project fluent” and asked why Fluent never went mainstream. Translation folks are whispering “finally,” while engineers mutter “prove it.”
Bottom line: the spec is real, the repo’s open, and they want your bug reports and war stories at the GitHub repo. Standardization stans vs practicality purists—grab popcorn, because this is about to decide how apps talk to the world
Key Points
- •The MessageFormat Working Group is a subgroup of the Unicode CLDR Technical Committee focused on a standard for localizable message strings.
- •The Unicode MessageFormat Standard is approved, stable within CLDR, and recommended for implementation and adoption.
- •The normative specification is published in Unicode TR35, with the repository containing the editor’s copy.
- •MessageFormat (often called MessageFormat 2.0) replaces earlier ICU message formatting capabilities.
- •Some functions in the u: namespace remain in Draft; feedback is encouraged, and contributions require a CLA under Unicode’s licensing terms.