page.title=Writing Style page.tags=dialog,toast,notification @jd:body

Android's Voice

When writing text that appears in your app, keep it concise, simple, and friendly.

Concise

Describe only what the user needs to know.
Eliminate redundancy, such as titles that restate the body of an information box.
Keep text as short as possible.

Avoid wordy, stilted text

Don't

Consult the documentation that came with your phone for further instructions.

Do

Read the instructions that came with your phone.

Don't provide unnecessary information

From a Setup Wizard screen

Signing in...
Your phone needs to communicate with Google servers to sign in to your account. This may take up to five minutes.

From a Setup Wizard screen

Signing in...
Your phone is contacting Google. This can take up to 5 minutes.

Simple

Use short words, active verbs, and common nouns.
Put the most important thing first. “Front-load” the first 11 characters with the most salient information in the string.
Don’t try to explain subtle differences. They are lost on most users.

Focus on the user's concern, not technical details

Don't

Manually control GPS to prevent other apps from using it

Do

To save power, switch Location mode to Battery saving

Put top news first

Don't

77 other people +1’d this, including Larry Page

Do

Larry Page and 76 others +1’d this

Put the user's goal first

Don't

Touch Next to complete setup using a Wi-Fi connection

Do

To finish setup using Wi-Fi, touch Next

Friendly

Use contractions.
Talk directly to the reader. Use “you” to refer to the reader.
Keep your tone casual and conversational, but avoid slang.

Avoid being confusing or annoying

Don't

Sorry!
Activity MyAppActivity (in application MyApp) is not responding

Do

MyApp isn’t responding
Do you want to close it?

Words to avoid

Don't use	Use
one, two, three, four, ...	1, 2, 3, 4, ...
application	app
cannot, could not, do not, did not will not, you will	Contractions: can’t, couldn’t, don’t, didn’t won’t, you’ll, and so on
okay, ok	OK
please, sorry, thank you	Attempts at politeness can annoy the user, especially in messages that say something has gone wrong. Exception: In Japanese, “please” is mandatory and imperative verbs should be localized accordingly (turn on -> please turn on).
there is, there are, it is and other “disappeared” subjects (grammatical expletives)	Use a noun as the subject
abort, kill, terminate	stop, cancel, end, exit
fail, failed, negative language	In general, use positive phrasing (for example, “do” rather than “don’t,” except in cases such as “Don’t show again,” “Can’t connect,” and so on.)
me, I, my, mine	you, your, yours
Are you sure? Warning!	Tell user the consequence instead, for example, “You’ll lose all photos and media”

Formatting text

Capitalization

Use sentence-style capitalization for all UI strings: “Words to live by.”
Capitalize all important words in:
- App names (Calendar, Google Drive)
- Named features (Android Beam, Face Unlock)
- Proper nouns (Statue of Liberty, San Francisco Giants)
Be conservative. Don't capitalize words that aren't part of a formal feature name:
- Sim card lock, Home screen, not Sim Card Lock, Home Screen.

Punctuation

Period. Don't use a period after a single sentence or phrase used in isolation, such as in a toast, label, or notification. Wherever two or more sentences run together, use a period for each sentence.
Ellipsis. Use the ellipsis character (…) (Option-; on MacOS and … in HTML) to indicate
- Incompleteness, such as an action in progress (“Downloading...”) or truncated text.
- That a menu item (such as Print… or Share…) leads to further UI involving significant choices. Exception: Commands whose wording already implies further (but limited) UI, such as Find in page or Pick a date, do not require an ellipsis.