Translating Chat Conversations
Customers can chat in their own language while your team works in yours. HelpGuides detects the language each customer writes in and shows your team their messages translated. Replies are translated into the customer's language before they're sent. The customer never sees any of this: they simply write and read in their own language.
For example, a customer on your website writes "Necesito un poco de ayuda para configurar el email marketing." In the inbox you see "I need a little help setting up email marketing." You reply "Sure, I can help", and the customer reads "Claro, puedo ayudarte."
Turning translation on
- Go to Inbox, then Messenger settings, and open the General tab.
- Under Translation, switch on Translate conversations.
- Choose your Inbox language. This is the language your team reads and writes in, unless a teammate chooses their own. It's English by default.
- Click Save settings.
With translation off, messages are shown and sent exactly as written.
Choosing your own language
Each teammate can work in a different language from the rest of the team:
- In the inbox, click Your profile in the header.
- Under Your language, pick the language you read and write in. Inbox default uses the inbox language.
Your choice saves straight away, and the open conversation switches to your language. It only changes what you see and how your replies are sent; your teammates keep their own languages.
How the customer's language is detected
The language is detected from the customer's first message. If they switch to another language part-way through, the conversation follows them, as long as the message is more than a word or two, so a passing "ok" or "merci" doesn't change it. The details panel shows the conversation's language under Language.
Reading conversations
The customer's messages and the AI agent's answers are shown in your language. Under each translated message, Translated from Spanish · show original opens the message exactly as it was written.
A new message appears in its original language for a second or two until its translation arrives. When you open an older conversation, any messages that haven't been translated into your language yet are translated then.
The AI agent always answers customers in their own language, whether or not translation is on. See Configuring the Chat AI Agent.
Replying
When the customer's language is different from yours, a Translate to Spanish option (with the customer's language) appears next to Send, and it's ticked:
- Write your reply in your own language and send it as usual. It's translated before it goes, and the customer only sees the translation.
- In the conversation, you see what you wrote. Sent in Spanish · show what they received shows the translation the customer got.
- Untick Translate to Spanish to send a reply exactly as you typed it, for example when you write in the customer's language yourself.
- If a reply can't be translated, it isn't sent. You see a message saying so, and your text stays in the reply box so you can try again.
Draft with AI writes its draft in your language when your reply will be translated, so you can read and edit it before sending. Saved replies work the same way: insert one in your language and it's translated when you send. See Using the Chat Inbox.
Proactive messages in the visitor's language
When a visitor's browser is set to a language other than your inbox language, proactive messages and their suggested questions appear in the visitor's language. For example, a visitor in Shanghai with a Chinese browser sees "👋I can answer questions about pricing or about our free trial." as "👋我可以回答有关定价或我们的免费试用的问题。"
- The language comes from the visitor's browser setting, not their country, so an English speaker browsing from abroad still sees your message in English.
{title}is still filled in with the page's title.- If the visitor replies, the conversation starts with the message as they saw it. In the inbox you see your original, with the translation one click away.
- Each message has a Show it in the visitor's language option, on by default. Untick it for copy that should stay exactly as written. See Chat Proactive Messages.
- If a translation isn't ready within a few seconds, the message is shown as you wrote it.
What isn't translated
| Item | What happens |
|---|---|
| Internal notes | Never translated. Only your team sees them. |
| Conversation list previews and typing previews | Shown in the customer's language. |
| Slack and email alerts | Show the customer's message as they wrote it. |
| The welcome message and the welcome screen's suggested questions | Shown as you wrote them in Messenger settings. |
| The messenger's own text | Buttons, tabs and a few fixed messages, such as the follow-up form, are in English. |
Supported languages
You can choose from more than 40 languages for your inbox and your own profile, including Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. Customers can write in any of them.