This guide will help you enable AI Inbox Translation, set your personal language preferences, and understand the on-demand translation feature in your inbox. The AI translation feature allows team members to read and reply to customer conversations in their preferred language. Customer messages are translated into each team member’s “Your Language” preference (i.e., the personal working language each team member sets in Inbox > Multilingual), and replies are translated back into the customer’s language.
- Provide support in more languages for customers without changing the team’s workflow.
- Eliminate manual translation steps to speed up response times.
- Help team members work confidently in their chosen languages.
- Maintain conversation readability in a single inbox view, even when multiple languages are involved.
This feature is not supported on the Growth plan.
How to Enable AI Auto-Translation?
- Go to Inbox > Multilingual.
- Configure Working Languages:
- Default Language: Domestic version = Simplified Chinese, International version = English
- Other Languages: Over 30 languages are available for selection as your personal working language.
- Enable the Auto-Translate on View feature.
- Configure Default Display Format: Default = Original + Translation
- Click the Save button.
How Does AI Translation Work in the Inbox?
When you open a conversation or receive a new message within one, 3Chat determines whether the original language of the message matches your set working language:
- Same language: The original message is displayed directly; no redundant same-language translation is generated.
- Different languages and auto-translation enabled: The message is automatically translated into your working language.
- Different languages but auto-translation disabled: The original message continues to be displayed, and you will be prompted to enable translation based on specific conditions.
Set Auto-Translation for a Single Conversation
Once personal auto-translation is enabled, Inbox automatically enables it for all conversations by default.
You can also go to Translation Settings in the conversation’s top bar to disable auto-translation or modify the display format for a specific conversation.
The relationship between Multilingual and Inbox translation settings is as follows:
| Multilingual Settings | Conversation Settings | Final Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-Translation ON, Default: Original + Translation | Unchanged | Auto-Translation ON, Display: Original + Translation |
| Auto-Translation ON, Default: Original + Translation | Conversation-specific OFF | This conversation is not translated |
| Auto-Translation ON, Default: Original + Translation | Changed to Translation Only | This conversation displays only the translation |
| Auto-Translation OFF | Any state | No conversations are translated |
Different Members Viewing the Same Conversation
Translation is part of each member’s personal reading experience.
Assume:
- Customer Language: English
- Agent A Working Language: Chinese
- Agent B Working Language: Japanese
Customer sends:
Where is my order?
Agent A can see:
Where is my order?
My order is where?
Agent B can see:
Where is my order?
Where is my order?
Both are viewing the same original message, but each has generated a view translation into their respective target languages.
Therefore: Multiple language view translations can exist simultaneously for a single conversation.
When Auto-Translation Is Not Enabled
If you have not enabled personal auto-translation, but the conversation you enter contains messages in a language different from your working language, 3Chat can prompt you at the top of the conversation:
Detected messages in another language. Would you like to translate to Chinese?
You can choose:
- Enable Auto-Translation
Enables personal auto-translation; subsequently, eligible conversations will be automatically translated. - Translate Only This Time
Translates only the current conversation without enabling personal auto-translation. - Do Not Remind Again
This browser will no longer display such prompts. - Close
Closes this prompt.
