Control how it answers
Make your chatbot reply in your customers' languages
When you finish, your bot replies in the language each visitor writes in, and its chat window offers your customers' languages.
Before you start
- You have a bot, and you set its languages on that bot alone.
- Your bot is live on your website, which is where you check the replies. How to check
- You know which languages your customers write to you in.
About 10 minutes. You’ll do four things:
- choose your main language
- add your customers' languages
- write a greeting in each language, if you want one
- check the replies on your own site
Most bots start with one language: English. A bot built from a website in another language, German for example, can start with that language as its main one and English second.
Either way, your bot replies in the language each visitor writes in. Your languages decide the language of the chat window, and of a reply to an opening message that does not show its own language, such as a number.
One exception: in Advanced mode, a bot whose only language is English gets no reply-language rule from adoomi. Your prompt decides, and if it names no language, the AI model chooses. The default model usually answers in the visitor's language.
| What the visitor gets | English only | With another language added |
|---|---|---|
| A reply to a first message with no clear language, such as a name, a number or 👍 | Usually English | Usually the chat window's language |
| The chat window's buttons and labels | English | The visitor's language, when it is on your list |
| A language picker in the chat window | None | Shown once two or more languages are on your list |
Choose your main language
In the bot sidebar, under Bot setup, click Appearance.
Click the Languages tab.
Under Main language, choose the language most of your customers write in.
The chat window opens in it for a visitor whose browser languages are not on your list.
Use a main language that is not in that list
In the bot sidebar, under Bot setup, click Localisation.
Under Default language, replace the code with your language's two-letter code.
The codes for some languages are in the table further down, for example sv for Swedish.
Click Save.
Afterwards, Main language on Appearance shows English. Leave it as it is: choosing a language there replaces your code.
Add your customers' languages
Under Translate widget chrome, click + Add another language.
English is already on the list. A bot built from a Spanish, French, German, Italian or Dutch website has that language on it too.
Choose a language from the Pick a language… list.
It joins the list at once.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each other language your customers use.
Click Save.
The save bar reads Saved. Live within ~60s.
Pick a language… offers English, Spanish, French, German, Polish, Arabic, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch and Japanese, minus any already on your list. A bot can have up to 20 languages. Any other language goes in from the Localisation page.
Add a language that is not in that list
In the bot sidebar, under Bot setup, click Localisation.
Click + Add language.
A new row appears with a two-letter code already in it.
Replace the code in the new row with your language's code, for example sv for Swedish.
Click Save.
| Language | Code |
|---|---|
| Swedish | sv |
| Norwegian (Bokmål) | nb |
| Danish | da |
| Finnish | fi |
| Greek | el |
| Turkish | tr |
| Russian | ru |
| Chinese | zh |
Use the language's code, not the country's. Swedish is sv, not se, and Danish is da, not dk.
Until you write one, a visitor sees your main-language greeting inside a chat window in their own language. You can write a greeting for each language as well. This part is optional.
Write a greeting in each language
In the bot sidebar, under Bot setup, click Localisation.
Click the tab named after the language's code, for example de for German.
Click Content overrides to open it.
Next to Initial messages (override), click Translate from default.
A draft translation of your main greeting fills the box. Nothing is saved yet.
Correct anything in the draft that sounds wrong.
Click Save.
On the same tab, you can translate your suggested questions, the bot's name, the footer and the notice. Each of those fields has its own Translate from default button. Leave a field empty and visitors see your main-language text there.
To try answers before your visitors do, open Test your bot in the bot sidebar and ask a question in each of your languages. It answers from the same training and follows the same reply-language rule. It has no language picker and shows only your main-language greeting, so a message that does not show its own language gets a reply in your main language.
Check the replies on your own site
About a minute after saving, open your website in a new browser tab.
Click the chat bubble.
Ask a question in one of your languages.
The reply comes back in that language.
Ask another question in a different language.
The bot follows you, message by message.
Send just a number or an emoji.
The reply usually comes back in the chat window's language. On the default model, about one such reply in three comes back in another language.
Check the language picker
In the chat window's header, click the language picker.
It is there once your list has two or more languages.
Choose another language.
The chat starts again from the greeting, in the language you chose.
How the chat window picks its language
When a visitor opens the chat, it uses the first of these that is on your list:
- The language the visitor picked earlier, in the same browser tab.
- The visitor's browser languages, in the order their browser prefers them.
- Your main language, when none of those is on your list.
The bot uses the same language for most messages that do not show their own. A name, a number, an emoji or a word like "ok" usually gets a reply in the chat window's language when it opens a chat. Later in a chat, the bot usually keeps the language the chat is already in.
If you want every reply in one language
No setting fixes the reply language today. You can name the language in your own instructions. When adoomi adds its own reply-language rule, that rule gives way to yours. In Guided mode, open the Response rules tab of Bot behaviour. Add a line such as "Always reply in English" under Custom constraints (one per line). In Advanced mode, write that line into your prompt.
The AI model does not follow such a line every time. On the default model in Guided mode, most replies follow it, but not all. In Advanced mode, it is followed almost every time while English is your only language and your main language, and less than half the time once you add another language.
If it didn’t work
My bot answers in English when a visitor writes in another language
- Check
- Look at the message first: a name, a number or a word like "ok" that opens a chat usually gets the chat window's language. Then open Bot behaviour, then Model & advanced, and look at Prompt mode.
- Fix
- In Advanced mode, check that your prompt does not name English, or add the visitor's language on Appearance, then Languages, and click Save. In Guided mode, check Custom constraints (one per line) on the Response rules tab for a line that names English. Wait a minute and ask again on your site.
- Resolved when
- A question written in German gets a reply in German.
My language changes will not save
- Check
- Read the save bar after you click Save. Instead of Saved. Live within ~60s. it shows a message in red, or it reads Settings changed in another tab — we reloaded the latest. Re-apply your edit and save again.
- Fix
- On Localisation, check that Default language and every language row hold a language code, such as de or en-GB, and that no code appears twice. For the other-tab message, make your change again and click Save. If it still fails, email hello@adoomi.ai with your bot's name and the message you see.
- Resolved when
- The save bar reads Saved. Live within ~60s.
The chat window's buttons are still in English
- Check
- The visitor's language has to be on your list. The chat window also has built-in translations for nine languages only: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese and Arabic.
- Fix
- Add the language to your list and save. For a language without built-in translations, such as Japanese, open Localisation and click that language's tab. Under UI string overrides, fill in placeholder for the message box hint and send for the send button, then click Save.
- Resolved when
- The message box hint and the send button read in the visitor's language.
There is no language picker in the chat window
- Check
- The picker only shows when your list has two or more languages. Open Appearance, then Languages, and count them.
- Fix
- Add a second language, click Save, wait a minute and reload your site.
- Resolved when
- A picker showing each language's own name sits in the chat window's header.
The chat emptied when a visitor changed language
- Check
- This happens every time someone chooses a language in the chat window's picker. The chat starts again in the new language.
- Fix
- Visitors do not need the picker to be answered in their language. Writing in it is enough, and the chat carries on. A visitor who wants the buttons in their language too can pick it before asking anything.
- Resolved when
- The visitor's next questions get answers in the language they chose.
Translate from default is greyed out
- Check
- Hover over the button. It reads Fill the default-language value first or Source and target language are the same.
- Fix
- For the first, write that text in your main language on Appearance, then Words, and save it. The send, feedback_helpful and feedback_unhelpful boxes have no main-language text to start from, so type those yourself. For the second, you are on your main language's own tab, which needs no translation.
- Resolved when
- Clicking the button fills the box with a draft.
I see "Translation failed — try again or write it manually."
- Check
- The draft translation could not be made this time.
- Fix
- Click Translate from default once more. If it fails again, write the text yourself, or email hello@adoomi.ai with your bot's name and the language you were translating into.
- Resolved when
- The box fills with a draft you can edit.
What this can’t do
- Your list does not limit replies: a visitor writing in an unlisted language gets a reply in it if the AI model knows that language.
- No setting fixes the reply language, and an instruction that names one language is not followed every time.
- Nine languages have built-in translations for the chat window's buttons and labels; in any other language, you can translate only the message box hint and the send button.
- The Powered by line stays in English in every language.
- Choosing a language in the picker starts a new chat, while writing in another language keeps the chat going.
- The test chat in the dashboard shows only your main-language greeting and has no language picker, so a message that does not show its own language gets a reply in your main language there.
- The footer box under UI string overrides has no effect, so translate the footer under Content overrides instead.
- A bot can have up to 20 languages.