About the Live Chat translation service

Use the Live Chat Translation feature to communicate with customers who speak a different language than the technician.

Important: Live Chat Translation needs to be enabled for the technician in the Administration Center. Technician Console version 7.50.3565 or later is required to run the feature.

Attention:

As of March 2025, the Live Chat Translation feature is available as part of the premium Translate add-on.

How does the Live Chat Translation feature work?

Note: The live Chat Translation service uses the Google Cloud Translation API. For more information about the terms of the service visit the Google Cloud Platform Terms of Service site.

The translation indicator in the title bar of the chat panel tells you that the Live Chat Translation feature is enabled in your Technician Console.

When the feature is activated, the ⮂ icon is shown between two language codes. The language on the left stands for the target language (i.e., the customer's), while the right one is the technician's language. When the technician sends a message to the customer, it automatically gets translated to the target language and is displayed in the chat log in the following format:

Message in the Technician’s language. <Message in the translated language.>

Only the translated message is displayed on the customer's side. When they reply to the technician, the Technician Console translates the message before displaying it in the chat log in the technician's language.

Configuring the Live Chat Translation feature

Click the translation indicator in the title bar of the chat panel.
Configure the translation options in the pop-up window:
- Applet: Select the customer's language, or use the recommended Auto-detect language option.
- Technician Console: Displays the default language for the technician.
- Translate check-box:
  - Unchecked: No messages are translated, and the " | " icon is shown between the language codes. This is the normal operation of the Technician Console.
  - Checked: The ⮂ icon is shown between the two language codes, and the Technician Console always translates the subsequent messages. Previous messages in the chat log are not translated.
- Restore: The customer's language is restored to the original setting from the start of the session.

Configuring the Live Chat Translation feature in the WebTC

Select Always translate chat messages in the Tools menu.
Select the gear icon next to the Real-time translation radio button at the bottom of the chat panel.
Configure the translation options in the pop-up window:
- Customer chat: Select the customer's language, or use the recommended Auto Detect option.
- Technician chat: Select the technician's language, or use the prepopulated default language for the technician.

Note: Toggle the blue radio button to disable automatic translation.

How does the TC detect the customer's language?

In Instant Chat sessions the Customer Applet fetches language settings either from the default language of the operating system or automatically detects them based upon the text entered by the customer. If the target language is not yet known, and Auto-detect language is enabled, the language indicator will display a question mark (?) or a space character. You can also override the language settings manually if needed.

Note: In the upcoming versions, when the TC detects a possible target language, it will display the language code and a question mark (for example: 'de?') indicating that it detected a language, but it is still in detection mode.

Important: In Auto detection mode, no technician messages will be translated until the target language is reliably set, as the target language code is missing in the Applet.

Article last updated: 17 June, 2024

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