genetic-orange•2y ago
Multilingual Textblocks
Hi everyone. I'm looking for a way to make my assistant multilingual. This concerns the "hardcoded" text blocks. Getting the AI response in English is not a problem. To do this with text blocks, I only see the option of using a set AI that determines the user's language and then translates any text blocks that are wrapped in variables into the user's language. This approach is very cumbersome and results in the variables within Voiceflow becoming very extensive and confusing very quickly. Is there a smarter solution?
5 Replies
Creating a multilingual assistant with hardcoded text blocks in Voiceflow can indeed be challenging if you're trying to manage translations manually through variables. However, a more streamlined approach involves planning your project structure to accommodate multiple languages from the start. Here are some strategies you might consider:
- Project Duplication for Each Language: Start by creating your assistant in one language. Once the design is complete, duplicate the project for each additional language you want to support. You can then replace the text in text blocks with the translated content for each language. This approach keeps your variables and logic clean but requires maintaining multiple versions of the same project.
- Utilize Conditional Logic: For smaller projects or those with limited multilingual needs, you could use conditional logic to determine the user's language and display text blocks in the correct language. This method keeps everything within a single project but can become cumbersome as the number of languages and text blocks increases.
- External Translation Services: Integrating with an external translation service API could automate the translation of text blocks based on the user's language preference. This requires some setup and possibly incurring API costs but could streamline the process for projects with extensive multilingual needs.
Remember, selecting your assistant's language in Voiceflow is only possible upon project creation, and supported languages will be compatible with NLU. If you need to add a new language later, you'll have to create a new project and transfer the content over.
For more detailed guidance on creating multilingual experiences and managing project content, exploring Voiceflow's documentation and resources can provide valuable insights and best practices.
genetic-orangeOP•2y ago
Thank you, Tico, for your response. Unfortunately, the first method is not feasible because the project will become very large, and creating a complete copy for each language will be too extensive. Conditional logic with variables has been my approach to solving this. I would like to leave external translation services out of consideration for now because a solution within Voiceflow is likely to be more helpful to me.
VF is working on a fix for this, but it is not coming out until later this year (If I recall correctly). Your approach is actually pretty clever, but you could make it a component that translates the text and it would be pretty easy.
correct-apricot•17mo ago
Hi, do you mind expanding on this? My client would like to accommodate a few different languages and I’m unsure how to easily solve for this
@James ⚡ I just DMed you