Translating Customer Conversations Automatically

What does automatic translation do?

With automatic translation you talk with customers in any language without speaking it. A German, Polish or French customer writes in their own language; you read the message in yours. You type your reply in your own language; the customer gets it in theirs. This is an Enterprise feature and it is off by default.

How to switch it on

1. Go to Settings → Workspace → Preferences
2. Switch on Translate conversations automatically

Your reading language is the language of your own account (Dutch, English or German), so every colleague reads the messages in their own language.

What it looks like in the inbox

• Customer messages show in your language, with for example Translated from German · Show original underneath. One click shows the original.
• Above the input it says Your reply is translated into German automatically. You just type in your own language.
• Your own reply shows as you typed it, with Sent translated · Show sent text: so you can also see exactly what the customer received.
• With Switch off above the input you turn it off for one conversation, for example when you speak that language yourself.

The customer's language is recognized from their messages. When a visitor picks a language in the website chat, that one is used.

Where does it work?

On WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, the website chat, SMS, comments on Facebook and Instagram, and TikTok. Email isn't translated automatically (formatted emails with earlier messages below); there you use the translate button per message.

Also translated

• Automatic messages — the message that a team member has joined the conversation and your away message go out in the customer's language
• AI agent answers — the AI already answers the customer in their own language; in the inbox you read those answers in yours
• WhatsApp templates — when you send a template, the approved version in the customer's language is picked, if you have the template in that language (this works on every plan)

Good to know

• Names, order numbers, tracking codes, links, email addresses and emoji stay as they are
• Each translation is made once and stored: opening a conversation again costs nothing
• If translating fails once, your reply simply goes out untranslated
• Fair use: up to 20,000 translations per organization per month
• Translations are made with OpenAI's AI model (GPT-4o-mini), like Bugalou's other AI features