App lets Indigenous Brazilians connect in own languages

Witoto’s indigenous leader and teacher, Vanda Witoto, writes a message using the app Linklado in Manaus, Amazonas State, northern Brazil, on Jan 24, 2024. Linklado is an app that makes it possible to write messages on computers and smartphones using characters that exist only in some Amazonian indigenous languages. — AFP

RIO DE JANEIRO: For Indigenous communities in the Brazilian Amazon, getting online is a challenge. Now, a smartphone app is making it easier to connect by allowing them to use their own native languages.

Hyper-connected Brazil has more cell phones than people – over 250 million, for a population of 203 million, according to communications consultancy Teleco.