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Real-time automatic translation: inbox, conversation and agent language

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Conversa Labs

Conversa Labs

Last updated on Aug 18, 2026

Overview

Automatic translation lets international support teams work without losing the original conversation context. Conversa Labs keeps three independent decisions separate:

  • My translation language: the language each agent uses to view messages and transcripts.
  • Default team language: the shared fallback defined by the inbox or conversation.
  • Contact delivery language: the language actually sent through the external channel.

An agent can therefore type and read Portuguese, the contact can receive English, and another agent can view the same conversation in Spanish.

Prerequisites

  • The account-level Realtime Translation feature enabled by the Super Admin.
  • An enabled Google Translate integration with a valid project id and credentials. Connect it under Settings → Integrations → Google Translate. The form links to Google Cloud Console and the official setup guide: enable the Cloud Translation API, create an authorized service account, and paste the full contents of its downloaded JSON key.
  • Administrator access to configure inbox defaults.
  • Conversation access to create an override.

Step by step

Create the Google Translate credential

  1. In the integration form, use Open Google Translate console. Enable the Cloud Translation API on the page that opens.
  2. Open the Google Cloud project selector and view the project details. Copy the Project ID — not the name or number — into Google Cloud Project ID.
  3. Use Get Google Translate credentials to open IAM & Admin → Service Accounts in the same project.
  4. Create a service account, for example Conversa Labs Translation.
  5. Grant only Cloud Translation API User (roles/cloudtranslate.user). It can translate text and detect languages without administrative privileges.
  6. Open the new account and select Keys → Add key → Create new key → JSON. The file is downloaded only once.
  7. Open the .json as text, copy the entire object — including {, }, project_id, private_key and client_email — and paste it into Google Cloud Project Key File.

The JSON project_id must match the first field. Keep the file secret and never send it in a conversation, email or repository. If key creation is blocked, ask your Google Cloud administrator to review the iam.disableServiceAccountKeyCreation organization policy.

Do not configure a Google Cloud webhook. The platform's native STT creates the audio transcript, then the stored text is translated through a direct Cloud Translation API call. To use this flow, enable Audio transcription and Automatic translation → Translate transcripts on the inbox.

Configure the inbox default

  1. Open Settings → Inboxes and select an inbox.
  2. Open the Automatic translation tab.
  3. Enable automatic translation.
  4. Select the Default team language. It is only a fallback for agents without a personal preference.
  5. Select a Contact delivery language or choose detection per conversation.
  6. Choose whether to translate incoming messages, human replies before delivery and transcripts.
  7. Save and confirm that the provider indicator is ready.

The inbox is the default. A conversation can inherit, enable or disable translation without changing other conversations.

Settings & options

Set an individual agent language

In Profile → Language, each agent can select My translation language for the current account. The preference changes only that agent's view. It never changes contact delivery, a colleague's view or another account used by the same person. Agents sharing a language reuse the same cached translation.

Override one conversation

In the conversation's right sidebar, open the dedicated Translation section. Its compact summary shows the effective policy, contact delivery language, agent viewing language, provider and all three translation directions without mixing them into Conversation information.

Use Configure inbox default to change all conversations in that channel. Use Adjust this conversation only when the current conversation needs an exception:

  • Inherit from inbox.
  • Enable for this conversation and override selected fields.
  • Disable for this conversation without changing other conversations.

The panel also shows detected language, delivery language, provider state and the current viewer language source.

The Contact delivery language selected here belongs to this conversation. Configure the inbox or use per-conversation detection for a general behavior; this setting does not persist a language on the contact record or change that contact's conversations in other inboxes.

Use cases

Outbound replies

When an agent types Portuguese and the contact must receive English, the typed text is preserved first. The reply is translated before any WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, email or other channel service is called. The English result becomes the canonical transmitted content, while each agent sees a localized view.

When the representations differ, the outgoing bubble provides:

  • My language: the current agent's primary view.
  • Sent to contact: the exact content delivered to the channel service.
  • Typed text: the human-authored source before delivery translation.

Webhooks, APIs and exports continue to use the transmitted content, never a private viewer translation.

Incoming messages and audio

Incoming translation runs asynchronously and does not block channel ingestion. The bubble updates in real time and always keeps the original available.

Native STT remains the single audio-to-text owner. Transcript translation uses the stored transcript; it does not download the media again or create a second transcription. When the conversation already has a detected language, it is used as the STT hint; in a new or audio-only conversation, the provider detects the spoken language automatically. Playback state is preserved when switching between original and translated transcript.

Tips, limits & best practices

Failure behavior

Mandatory outbound translation is fail closed. If the provider fails, no channel service is called, the message remains recoverable, the typed text is retained and the agent can retry after fixing the configuration. The system never silently delivers the wrong language.

If the contact language is still unknown, translated delivery remains blocked. The agent's viewer language is never used as a contact-language fallback.

Limits and privacy

The first delivery excludes private messages, campaigns, automations, approved templates, structured commerce/payment/contract/calendar cards and messages authored by Maestro, AgentBot or Captain. It does not perform OCR or audio dubbing.

Eligible content is processed by the Google Translate integration configured by the installation operator. Message text and transcripts are not written to logs or metrics, and translated data follows the retention lifecycle of its message or attachment.

Troubleshooting

  • Provider pending: review the account's Google Translate integration.
  • Contact language missing: set it on the conversation or wait for a detectable incoming message.
  • My bubble has not changed language: review the Profile preference and reopen the conversation.
  • Message not sent: correct the provider/target and use Retry.

See also