Real-time message translation

Real-time message translation is available on the Growth plan and up.

With real-time translation, users can directly chat with other users from all over the world in their own language. TalkJS allows you to automatically translate users' messages in real-time, using the Google Cloud Translation API.

When real-time translation is enabled for a conversation, the chat UI shows clickable underlined text above the message field to translate the conversation into the user's own language:

Chat window with a message stating '我对订单还有一些疑问。我们可以打电话吗?', and clickable underlined text 'Translate this conversation into English'.

There are two things you need to do to set up real-time translation:

  1. Obtain and configure a Google API key
  2. Enable translation in the client SDK.

Obtain and configure a Google API key

  1. If you don't have one yet, create a project in the Google Cloud Platform console.
  2. Make sure that billing is enabled. See Google's documentation on enabling billing for more info.
  3. Enable the Google Cloud Translation API for your project.
  4. Go to the credentials page, click "Create credentials" and select "API key".
  5. Click the edit button next to the newly created API key, and configure it as follows:
    • Give the API key any name you want.
    • From the "Application restrictions" list, select "HTTP referrers".
    • Click "Add an item", and enter https://app.talkjs.com
    • Under "API restrictions", click "Restrict key."
    • From the "Select APIs" dropdown, select the Google Cloud Translation API.
    • Click "Save".
  6. Copy the API key.
  7. On the Settings page of your TalkJS dashboard, in the 'Localization' section, paste the API under the heading 'Google Translate API Key'. Click Save localization settings.

Enable translation in the JavaScript SDK

Translation settings are set per chat component, and aren't kept in the user's browser, so you have full control over when translation is turned on or off.

Show a translation toggle in the UI

You can pass a value for showTranslationToggle when calling createChatbox, createInbox or createPopup to display underlined clickable text at the bottom of conversations that allows the user to turn translation on or off for that conversation. Setting the toggle to true shows the toggle in all conversations, while setting it to "auto" only shows the toggle when there are participants with different locales.

1const inbox = session.createInbox({
2 showTranslationToggle: 'auto',
3});

Enable translation for multilingual conversations

If you pass "auto" for translateConversations to createInbox, createChatbox or createPopup, translations is enabled for any conversations in this UI where there are participants with different locales.

1const inbox = session.createInbox({
2 translateConversations: 'auto',
3});

You can also apply the following setting to an existing UI, in which case it is applied to any conversations for which you haven't specifically turned translation on or off.

1inbox.setTranslationEnabledDefault('auto');

Enable translation for all conversations in a UI

If you pass a Boolean value for translateConversations to createInbox, createChatbox or createPopup, translations are enabled or turned off for all conversations shown in that UI.

1const inbox = session.createInbox({
2 translateConversations: true,
3});

You can change this setting on an existing UI object as well, as follows:

1inbox.setTranslationEnabledDefault(true);

This changes the default translation setting, which applies to any conversation for which you haven't specifically enabled or turned off translation.

Enabling translation per conversation

If you pass an array of conversation IDs or ConversationBuilders for translateConversations to createInbox, createChatbox or createPopup, translation is enabled for those conversations, and turned off for all others by default.

1const inbox = session.createInbox({
2 translateConversations: ['conv_1', 'conv_2'],
3});

To do enable translation for an array of conversations on an existing UI object, use the following:

1inbox.setTranslationEnabledForConversation(conversation, true);