You can give your agents the power to automatically translate incoming messages from live conversation channels in the Zendesk Agent Workspace, if they so choose. This allows agents to communicate with end users and other agents, even if they are using different languages.
For information about using live conversation translation after it is activated, see Translating conversations in the Zendesk Agent Workspace.
This article includes the following topics:
About live conversation translation
In this section, we’ll discuss the following topics related to live conversation translation:
Understanding live conversation translation
Live conversation translation gives agents the option to automatically translate incoming messages (coming from the end user) and outgoing messages (going to the end user) in the Zendesk Agent Workspace. It works in live conversations from the following channels:
- Live chat
- Social channels
- Sunshine Conversations channel
- Zendesk messaging
Additionally, agents can choose to translate incoming email messages sent by end users and created by the API. The live conversation translation feature in Agent Workspace also supports the translation of incoming comments sent via other channels, such as web forms, web services, messaging Web Widget, Web Widget (Classic), and closed tickets, but it doesn't support any outbound emails sent to end users.
If the agent’s and end user’s languages are different, a translation banner is displayed informing the agent of the language difference, and they can choose to enable translation for that conversation.
Limitations to this feature include:
- There is a 5,000-character limit per message for translation. Any message over 5,000 characters will not be translated.
- SunCo Shorthands are not supported for translations.
- Translations for third-party widgets are not supported.
How conversations are translated
A user’s language is determined based on recent messages they have sent, then Google Translate is used to translate text.
The length and number of the messages can affect the language analysis. There's no guaranteed length at which the language will always be detected, but longer messages produce better results.
If the text scan detects that the agent’s and end user’s languages are different, the translation banner is displayed. If the text scan can't detect the language (for example, the message was too short to determine the language), the banner doesn’t appear.
Both the original and translated messages sent by the agent appear in the Event log. End-user messages appear only in the original language.
Languages supported in live conversation translation
The following languages are currently supported in live conversation translation:
| Arabic (ar) | French (fr) | Italian (it) | Simplified Chinese (zh-cn) |
| Bulgarian (bg) | French - Canada (fr-ca) | Japanese (ja) | Spanish (es) |
| Czech (cs) | German (de) | Korean (ko) | Swedish (sv) |
| Danish (da) | Greek (el) | Norwegian (no) | Thai (th) |
| Dutch (nl) | Hebrew (he) | Polish (pl) | Traditional Chinese (zh-tw) |
| English - United Kingdom (en-gb) | Hindi (hi) | Portuguese - Brazil (pt-br) | Turkish (tr) |
| English - United States (en-us) | Hungarian (hu) | Romanian (ro) | Ukrainian (uk) |
| Finnish (fi) | Indonesian (id) | Russian (ru) | Vietnamese (vi) |
The end-user experience
When an agent turns on automatic translation for a live conversation, the end user does not receive an activation notification—agent messages simply appear in their detected language. However, translated agent messages are identified in the conversation.
In a live chat, translated messages have a Show original link, which end users can click to display the untranslated message:
In messaging and Social Messaging conversations, translated messages are identified by the word Translated in their detected language. Unlike live chat conversations, however, they cannot display the untranslated version of the message:
Activating live conversation translation for agents
Account admins can give agents the ability to automatically translate incoming messages, if they choose, by activating the feature in Admin Center.
To activate live conversation translation
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Settings. - In the Settings tab, locate the Translations section then select Agents can translate conversations.
- Click Save tab.
Agents can now choose to automatically translate incoming messages in the Agent Workspace.
To deactivate live conversation translation
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Settings.
- In the Settings tab, locate the Translations section then deselect Agents can translate conversations.
- Click Save tab.
41 Comments
Hi @...
A question regarding the email support in agent workspace. You inform that we need 3rd. party apps for outgoing translation.
Do you have any intention of expanding the outgoing translation to email support? We really need that feature, and are not currently interested in using 3rd. party apps for translation that way. :)
Thanks!
@...
3rd Party Apps are so very expensive. That may some company decide that Google is good enough for translate. So I would also support the request from @... to have it both way, if companies like better quality they can start using 3rd Party App´s but for smaller Teams which need support EMEA region, some build in feature would be really helpful.
Kind Regards,
Tobias
If Google Translate is good enough for all the other channels, including incoming email, why on earth would outgoing email by Google Translate not be considered necessary by Zendesk?
Another totally bonkers and arbitrary decision by Zendesk, yet again.
All my support team is going to do is type their reply into Google Translate (the exact same way you have delivered their incoming message to the team) so why not just build it in as standard.
Ahh yes, to monetise.
Hi @...,
Translations in Agent Workspace is currently supported for incoming (Agent -> End User) and Outgoing (End User -> Agent) for the following channels,
In case you are using one of the above channels and outgoing translations are not available, please let us know and we would be happy to check the case for you.
We only support translations for incoming Emails in Agent Workspace. Outgoing translations can be enabled using existing Apps in the marketplace like Unbabel and Language.io.
Regards,
Ayush
When will this be available for other channels than Chat?
Your article states that email is supported, but I get the following error (see attachment)
Please, consider enabling the possibility to permanently diseable the translation feature instead of forcing users to do it everytime by clicking it, it is just 1 click, but still it is a waste of time.
Hi,
Our team reported that the Google Translator tool does not translate messages from the agents, but only from the customers.
We have other Non-native agents, QA, Training, SMEs do reviews/drilldown and this feature would have been great if it works on both sides.
I would highly recommend not using the translate feature since this is utilizing Google Translate. Any PII that might be discussed with a customer is now on the cloud. "Google Translate should never be used for translating highly-sensitive content that contains personal data or other important information. Once you enter the text in the tool, it becomes property of Google, and they can use the data to their discretion. This may result in breaches of regulations or contractual relations that you have established with your partners, customers or vendors."
Hi @... and @...,
We support translations for incoming Emails in Agent Workspace. Outgoing translations are not supported, as shown in the tooltip.
Outgoing translations can be enabled using existing Apps in the marketplace like Unbabel and Language.io.
Regards,
Ayush
Hi @...,
Thanks for reaching out. There are no immediate plans regarding bringing outgoing translation to email support.
I am curious if there is any use case not being served through the existing 3rd party marketplace apps? Usually, AI powered machine translations (like Unbabel) fare much better in terms of translation quality of large paragraphs of text.
Regards,
Ayush
We have a recent update with the auto-detect functionality. Currently, we process the visitor's language for detection if we have 3 messages from the visitor or the total length of the messages is more than 200 characters, whichever comes first. Your agent can still input the selected language from the "translate" drop-down, to then proceed to translate.
Our documentation team is currently working on updating our document to reflect this behavior.
Is there a way to disable the translation bar option showing altogether.
Thanks,
Dave
Same here, I think the article is not up to date.
Hi there,
I have raised this issue in November, 2021. It is more than an year now and still no development.
In Agent Workspace when a client is chatting from the mobile app, he still does not see the agent's replies in his language.
Everything is working fine if the client is on the website chat. So, why it is is so hard to be implemented in the mobile chat?
At this time the translation feature is part of the core functionality and not able to be disabled. You can stop translating anytime by following the below steps:
In the translation banner, click Stop. Or, in the conversation header, click the Options menu, then click Stop translating.
Thanks!
Thanks for your question.
The limitations with translation related to the 3rd-party widget apps for Intercom, Telegram, Viber, etc. from our marketplace - https://www.zendesk.com/marketplace/apps
By coincidence one of my agents brought up this exact same issue as Anjana Hiregoudar today. The chat doesn't translation unless there are 3 messages AND the translation option is missing from the menu. This means our agents have to manually translate these conversations via google translate. Not a great experience.
Is there a way around this so auto-translation kicks in from the start of the chat?
The live conversation translation feature doesn't work on tickets via the Mobile SDK channel. You can refer to the article Understanding and Activating Live Conversation Translation for more information about this.
Live conversation translation gives agents the option to automatically translate incoming messages (coming from the end user) and outgoing messages (going to the end user) in the Zendesk Agent Workspace. It works in live conversations from the following channels:
Hi Dimitar,
Thanks for your feedback. We have the translation feature on our backlog for the mobile apps but we do not have any firm timelines for this feature yet. I've recorded your feedback for this feature on mobile and will revert back on this thread when we do start working on it.
Thanks,
Will
Hello Zendesk!
We're on a professional plan currently for 2 brands, but somehow I do not see the option for enabling translation. Can you point me to the area where I can enable it? For the time being, we would need it mainly in Support and later on in the Live chat.
Thanks in advance!
Hi Zendesk Team,
I am exploring some potential translation capabilities in Agent workspace (Support).
New tickets (created via email or chat channels) may contain client specific abbreviations and/or wording – how can a list of such KNOWN wordings/Glossary be uploaded (made available) to Zendesk so that:
OR
As an example:
the client uses the abbreviation "URt" (which means “urgent request”).
When a ticket with this abbreviation is created and the agent uses the translate feature:
• The ticket body is translated and URt abbreviation remains untranslated
• The ticket body is translated and URt abbreviation is replaced with its meaning (urgent request)
I've already reviewed a significant number of resources in the Support Knowledgebase, but I haven't found any information about similar case.
Thanks!
Hi Guys,
We recently moved to the Agent Workspace interface and we got a big shock today understanding that the translation feature is not supported in the mobile app for messaging in Agent workspace. We are big fans of Google Translate in the Chat as we are able to communicate with different nationalities and over 90% of our clients are visiting the chat from our mobile application.
So, we have no choice, but to return to the standard interface.
Is there a deadline when this feature will be available?
Regards,
Dimitar
Also found out that Agent Workspace does not automatically identifying user languages for short messgaes. Currently, it only auto-detects the visitor's language if we have 3 messages from the visitor or the total length of the messages is more than 200 characters, whichever comes first.
This is an important feature for us as we are a globla company and we get visitors from all over the globe. Usually the visitor's messages are short. How do we make sure we are picking the right language from the language drop down if it is not auto-detecting?
Hi. To go alongside the 5000 character limit, you should have a character counter when you type (unless I am missing it and it can be activated somewhere). We do need to send some larger messages but have to then check the characters over on another platform. Can't you add a character counter?
Thanks, Jason
Hi Todor
Great to hear! :)
Remember that you need to activate the agent in zendesk chat, before the translation feature is visible in zendesk support. I'm unfortunately not 100% sure on which plan you need to be on, before translation is a option. But chat is definitely required on the specific agent.
Have a nice day! :)
Hi Joyce,
We have tickets from mobile SDK which has more than 200 characters but the translation banner hasn't showed up. I can't find other details about this feature outside of this article.
Could you help me check why the banner not showing up here ?
Thank you
Christian Mortensen
You need to be sure, that the users have Zendesk chat activated, if they need to use the translation feature in Support. :)
If you are the admin, you will most likely have chat enabled on your user by default.
Hello Henning
Thanks for the tip! Agent workspace is now activated but I still struggle to get the translator on...
Can you help me somehow? :)
Thanks in advance!
Definitely needing the ability to have outbound translations and not third party apps. Is this something that is coming?
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