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Set a user's language by default or let them choose it in their profile. Detect language for unregistered or logged-out users via email, Help Center, or Web Widget. Agents can update language settings manually or through business rules. Use language settings in business rules to manage ticket routing and dynamic content effectively.
A user's language is set as the account's default language when the user is created, but users can set their preferred language in their profile. If a user does not have an account or is not logged in, their language can be detected in several ways.
This article contains the following sections:
How a user's language is set
When a user is created in Zendesk, the user's language is set to the default language for your account.
A user's preferred language can be set in the following ways:
- Agents and end users can set their own language in their profile. See Viewing and editing your user profile.
- Agents with user management permission can set a user's language in the user's profile. See Viewing an end user's profile.
- A business rule can set a user's language using the Set requester's language action. See Setting a user's language preference with an automation or trigger.
For end users, the list of available languages is the same as the languages you selected to support. If the end user's language is not supported, they can't select it. Agents always see the complete list of supported languages for the Support UI, regardless of your account's language settings.
If language is present, this setting can be used in your business rules to, for example, determine which dynamic content language variant is used or to route tickets to specific groups or agents. See Using an end user’s language in business rules.
How a user's language is detected
For unregistered end users (those who do not yet have an account), or registered users who are not logged in, the language can be detected in several ways:
- Email: The language used in an end user's email support request is automatically detected. See Detecting an end user's language from an email message.
- Help center (if you have enabled your languages in your help center): When an unregistered end user has selected a language in the help center, the support request submit form, like the rest of the help center, is set to that language. Then, when the end user submits a support request, the language is identified, and their profile is flagged with the language.
- Web Widget: Zendesk can detect a user's preferred language from their web browser's preference setting. The accept-language header in the HTTP request contains information about the user's language preference. If that is present, the language can be detected.
Ticket attributes from system fields are automatically translated into the detected language. If you want the attributes to be displayed in your default language, you can use dynamic content.