Austin residents can now use the Austin 3-1-1 App in Spanish, according to a release from the city of Austin on Jan. 6.

Austin 3-1-1 is the city’s non-emergency line and a place to access information about city services. The new update will allow Spanish-speaking residents and visitors to submit non-emergency service requests and report city-related issues in Spanish, said Marisa Campbell, a public information specialist senior with Austin 3-1-1.

“The app makes city-related information and service requests more accessible and inclusive for all of our Austinites,” Campbell said. “It helps ensure that language is never a barrier to getting help or staying informed.”

Campbell said the app switches to Spanish automatically if a user’s phone is already set to the language. In the web version, users can change languages by clicking the globe icon at the top of the page.

Campbell said the app took about a year to translate and fully develop, going through a six-month-long soft-launch phase. She said Spanish requests face no delays compared to English requests, because the app uses real-time translation for user entries and request updates.

Lila Valencia, the city of Austin’s demographer, said the update to the app is important because the Hispanic population makes up about 32%, or about 320,000 people, of Austin’s entire population, making it the second-largest ethnic group in the city.

Valencia said a higher percentage of Austin’s Hispanic population does not speak English compared to other groups, such as the city’s Asian communities, but English proficiency among Hispanics has been increasing.

According to Valencia, 39% of Hispanics in Austin are bilingual, speaking both English and Spanish, but 24% of Hispanics do not speak English well. Older Hispanics make up the majority of the population that does not speak English well, with about 42% of older Hispanics not able to speak the language well. That number drops to about 37% among the workforce and to about 35% among Hispanic children.

“When you don’t have equal access to information or equal access to programs and services, it can result in a situation where those programs are only serving a fraction of the community,” Valencia said.