What is Auto-Translation?
Auto-translation lets your team handle conversations in any language without speaking it. An agent in Oslo can answer a customer in São Paulo without either of them noticing the translation seam. The customer writes Portuguese; the agent reads Norwegian; the agent replies Norwegian; the customer reads Portuguese.
It’s a tenant-level toggle (one switch, in Settings → Translation) plus a per-user language preference (in Settings → Language) that decides whose primary language each agent works in.
How a message flows
When auto-translation is on:
- Inbound — a customer message arrives. Atender detects the language and translates it into the agent’s primary language unless the message is already in one of the agent’s secondary languages, in which case it passes through untranslated.
- Agent reads, agent replies — the agent works in their primary language as if everything were already in it.
- Outbound — the agent’s reply is translated into the customer’s detected language and sent.
- Original preserved — both the original and the translation are kept on the message. A toggle in the conversation view lets the agent see the original text any time.
Neither side sees the other’s language. Neither side notices translation is happening.
Primary vs secondary languages
Each agent configures two things in Settings → Language:
- Primary language — the language the agent works in. Inbound messages get translated into this. Outbound replies get composed in this and translated out.
- Secondary languages — languages the agent reads natively. Messages in these languages are not translated; the agent sees the original.
So a German agent who also reads English would set primary = German and secondary = English. German customers come through in German (no translation, same language). English customers come through in English (untranslated — the agent reads English fine). Spanish customers come through translated to German.
Two translation systems, one product
Atender has two translation systems for two different jobs:
- Auto-translation — Live customer conversations, in real time, message by message. — Settings → Translation + Settings → Language (per agent).
- Knowledge Base translation — Full multi-language KB articles, with translation jobs, protected terms, and per-language overrides. — The Knowledge Base module.
This article covers the conversation-side system. The KB system is more comprehensive and has its own controls; see the Knowledge Base documentation for that side.
When the agent wants to see the original
The original message is always preserved, even when the agent sees a translation. A small toggle on each translated message switches between the translated and original text. Use it when:
- The translation reads strangely and you want to verify
- A product name or technical term might have been mistranslated
- You partially read the source language and want to confirm
The toggle is per-message; switching it doesn’t change other messages.
What’s required to use it
- Auto-translation enabled at the tenant level (admin only — see Enable auto-translation)
- Each agent’s language preferences set (Set language preferences)
That’s all. There are no per-language packs to install, no per-customer settings to configure.
Where to start
- Turn it on: Enable auto-translation
- Set your own languages: Set language preferences
- Something not translating? FAQ — translation not working