Answer every customer in the language they wrote in
People explain their problem best in their own language. With the Google side of the AI app switched on, your chatbot and your agents can answer them there, in real time.
This is for you if enquiries arrive in more than one language and you do not have a native speaker for each one. It covers translation between agents and customers, translation for the chatbot, language detection, and Google search for questions that need live information.
Step by step
Set the Google sync mode
The multilingual features need the Google side of the AI app. On our cloud, with Google sync mode set to Automatic, they work with no setup and run on credits you top up. Manual mode needs your own Google Cloud project with the Cloud Translation API and billing enabled, which is a paid Google service with a free tier.
Turn on automatic translation for agents
Go to Settings > Artificial Intelligence > Automatic translation. User messages are translated into the agent's language and agent messages into the user's language, in real time. Notifications are translated as well.
Turn on multilingual via translation for the chatbot
This translates user messages into the chatbot's default language and translates the chatbot's replies back into the user's language. It covers everything shown in the chat: rich messages, articles, registration forms and pop-ups. Both agents and users need a language set, otherwise the defaults are used.
Let the system work out the customer's language
Language detection reads the user's messages and sets their language, or shows a fallback message using the merge field {language_name}. It gives the translation features something reliable to work with when no profile language exists.
Add Google search for live answers
Go to Settings > Artificial Intelligence > Google search. Create a programmable search engine, then copy the Search engine ID and an API key into the panel. We recommend adding only your website and Wikipedia rather than the whole web, so answers stay relevant.
Settings reference
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Sync mode | The Google sync mode: Automatic works with no setup on our cloud and runs on credits, Manual uses your own Google Cloud project. |
| Automatic translation | Translates user messages into the agent's language and agent messages into the user's language in real time, including notifications. |
| Multilingual via translation | Translates user messages into the chatbot's default language and the chatbot's replies back into the user's language. |
| Language detection | Detects the user's language from their messages and sets it, or shows a fallback message using {language_name}. |
| Google search | Lets the chatbot search for answers that need real-time information when it does not already know the answer. |
| Search engine ID | Identifies the programmable search engine the chatbot should search. |
| API key | The key that lets the chatbot run those searches on your Google account. |
Good to know
Keep some words as they are
Wrap text in a single backtick, or in triple backticks, and it will not be translated. Handy for product names, codes and anything that must stay exactly as written.
English must be the default if you use it
With multilingual via translation, if English is one of your languages then English must be the default language and the original texts must be English.
Language detection only gets two chances
The message must be at least 2 words, and detection only runs on the first 2 user messages of a conversation. With a general-purpose chatbot active the fallback message never fires, because the AI answers anyway.
Where each language comes from
The agent's language is their profile language, otherwise their browser or panel language. The user's language is their profile language, otherwise the chat language, otherwise their browser language, or whatever language detection finds.
Google search is a last resort, not a first one
It only runs when the chatbot does not know the answer and the message is longer than 4 characters. Spelling correction does not require it.
Translations are saved as they are made
Multilingual via translation writes translations into the translation files, which cuts cost and improves speed over time.
Common questions
Can my agents see what the customer actually wrote?
Do these features cost extra?
Do I need my own Google account?
Which parts of the chat does multilingual via translation cover?
What should I add to my programmable search engine?
Why does my language detection fallback message never appear?
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