Live chat translation
Live chat translation for teams that only speak one language
Your AI agent already answers visitors in their language. When a person takes over, live translation lets your team read each message in their own language and write the reply in it, while the visitor gets the answer in theirs.
Visitor: Ich habe zwei Pakete bekommen, aber eins davon ist beschädigt. Was soll ich tun?
Agent: Das tut mir leid! Schick uns bitte ein Foto des beschädigten Pakets hier im Chat, dann kümmere ich mich direkt um einen Ersatz.
Visitor: Mache ich, danke!
The AI speaks every language. Your team doesn’t.
An AI agent on your website happily answers in German, Spanish or Japanese. The trouble starts when a visitor asks for a person. Your team member opens the chat, sees three messages they can’t read, and either copies them into a translation tab, answers in English and hopes for the best, or leaves the chat waiting for the one colleague who speaks the language. Each of these is slow, and none of it keeps a clean record of what was actually said. Live chat translation puts the translation inside the conversation, for both directions, so whoever is online can answer whoever is asking.
Why translate live chats inside the inbox
Live translation is part of inbox automation on the Pro and Enterprise plans.
Read in your language
Visitor messages in another language show a translation right under the original, labelled “Translated from” and the language. Messages already in your language show nothing extra.
Write in your language
Type your reply as you normally would. Before it is sent, it is translated into the visitor’s language, so the visitor only ever reads their own language.
Each person picks their own language
The setting belongs to each team member, not to the account. One colleague can read in German and another in Spanish in the same conversation.
Both versions on record
The conversation keeps what the visitor received and, under it, what you wrote, labelled “Written in” your language and “sent in” the visitor’s. Your team can always check the original wording.
Nothing goes out half-translated
If a reply can’t be translated at that moment, it isn’t sent. You see “Your reply couldn’t be translated right now” and can try again, or switch translation off and send it as written.
How live translation works
Switch it on for yourself
Go to Settings, Inbox automation. Under Live translation (just for you), choose Your language and switch on Translate. It needs the Editor role or above.
Open a live chat
On the Live chat page or in the Inbox, open a conversation. The Translate switch is also in the conversation’s header, so you can turn it on or off and change the language right there.
Read the translations
The visitor’s language is detected from their messages. Each visitor message in another language gets a translation under the original, in the language you chose.
Reply in your language
Write and send as usual. Your reply is translated into the visitor’s language before it reaches them. When the visitor writes in your language, your reply goes out exactly as you wrote it.
Live translation details
26 languages for your team
Pick your language from 26, among them English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian, Albanian, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean and Chinese.
Visitor language detected for you
You don’t tell intoCHAT what language the visitor speaks. It is detected from their messages, and your reply is translated into it.
Translated once, stored with the message
Translations are made by AI and saved with the message, so it isn’t translated again while your team reads in the same language. A teammate reading in another language gets their own translation.
Doesn’t use your plan’s messages
Translations aren’t counted as replies, so they don’t use your monthly message allowance. Each person can make up to 300 translation requests an hour, and one request covers up to 20 messages.
Works with saved replies
Insert a saved reply with / and it is translated together with the rest of your reply when you send it, so one set of saved replies serves every language.
Satisfaction emails in the right language
When a solved conversation triggers a satisfaction email, it uses the language live translation detected for the visitor, in English, German, French, Italian or Spanish.
The visitor’s view stays clean
The chat window, the transcript the visitor loads and the AI agent’s later answers all use the translated reply. What you wrote in your language stays with your team.
Personal and portable
Your language and switch follow you into every account you work in. Nobody else’s view changes when you turn translation on or off.
Frequently asked questions
What is live chat translation?
Live chat translation translates a support conversation in both directions while it happens. In intoCHAT, a team member reads each visitor message in their own language and writes the reply in it; the reply is translated into the visitor’s language before it is sent, and both versions are kept in the conversation.
Which plan includes live translation?
Live translation is included on Pro and Enterprise. Live chat itself works on every plan, and saved replies start at Starter. On a plan without live translation, its settings card says which plans include it.
Does the AI agent need live translation to answer in other languages?
No. By default the AI agent already replies in the language each visitor writes in, and you can set a reply language on the Setup tab. Live translation is for the moment a person from your team takes over the chat.
Which languages can my team read and write in?
Each team member picks one of 26 languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Czech, Romanian, Hungarian, Greek, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian, Albanian, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean or Chinese. The visitor’s language is detected from their messages.
Does the visitor see that a message was translated?
The visitor sees only their own language: in the chat window, in the transcript they load and in the agent’s later answers. The original you wrote and the “Written in” label are visible to your team only.
What happens if a translation fails?
Your reply isn’t sent. You see “Your reply couldn’t be translated right now” and can try again, or switch translation off and send it as written. A visitor never receives a reply that is half in one language and half in another.
Do translations count toward my message limit?
No. Translations don’t use your plan’s messages. The only limit is 300 translation requests an hour per person, and one request translates up to 20 visitor messages.
What isn’t translated?
Messages sent by triggers go out as you wrote them. The AI summary shown when you take over a chat is always in English, as is the dashboard. Translations appear under visitor messages; the AI agent’s own replies are shown as they were sent, already in the visitor’s language.
Answer every visitor, whatever language they write in
Create your agent free, turn on live chat, and switch on live translation on Pro to read and reply in your own language.
Create your agent freeFree plan, no credit card needed.