Translation

Chat messages can be translated on-demand or automatically, this allows users speaking different languages on the same channel.

Message Translation Endpoint

This API endpoint translates an existing message to another language. The source language is inferred from the user language or detected automatically by analyzing its text. If possible it is recommended to store the user language, see " Set user language " section later in this page.

// Translate message to French
val channelClient = client.channel("messaging", "general")
val message = Message(text = "Hello, I would like to have more information about your product.")

channelClient.sendMessage(message).enqueue { result ->
  if (result is Result.Success) {
    val messageId = result.value.id
    val frenchLanguage = "fr"

    client.translate(messageId, frenchLanguage).enqueue { translationResult ->
      if (translationResult is Result.Success) {
        val translatedMessage: Message = translationResult.value
        val translation = translatedMessage.getTranslation(frenchLanguage)
      } else {
        // Handle Result.Failure
      }
    }
  } else {
    // Handle Result.Failure
  }
}

let messageController = chatClient.messageController(cid: <#T##ChannelId#>, messageId: <#T##MessageId#>)
messageController.translate(to: .french) { error in
  if error == nil {
    print(messageController.message?.translations?[.french])
  }
}

await channel.sendMessage(Message(
 id: messageId,
 text: 'Hello, I would like to have more information about your product.',
));

// returns the message.text translated into French
final response = await channel.translateMessage(messageId, 'fr');

// the translation will be added to the i18n object
print(response.message.i18n['fr_text']);
// "Bonjour, J'aimerais avoir plus d'informations sur votre produit.",

await channel.sendMessage({
  id: messageID,
  text: "Hello, I would like to have more information about your product.",
});

// returns the message.text translated into French
const response = await client.translateMessage(messageID, "fr");

// the translation will be added to the i18n object
console.log(response.message.i18n.fr_text);
// "Bonjour, J'aimerais avoir plus d'informations sur votre produit.",

// Not yet supported in the Unreal SDK

$response = $client->translateMessage($msgId, new Models\TranslateMessageRequest(language: "hu"));

echo $response->getData()->message->i18n["fr_text"];

resp = client.chat.translate_message(id=msg_id, language="fr")

resp.data.message.i18n["fr_text"]

require 'getstream_ruby'
Models = GetStream::Generated::Models

# Translate a message to French
resp = client.chat.translate_message(msg_id, Models::TranslateMessageRequest.new(language: 'fr'))

resp.message.i18n['fr_text']

translated, err := client.Chat().TranslateMessage(ctx, messageID, &getstream.TranslateMessageRequest{
	Language: "fr",
})
translated.Data.Message.I18n["fr_text"]

var resp = await chat.TranslateMessageAsync(message.Id, new TranslateMessageRequest
{
    Language = "fr",
});

resp.Message.I18n["fr_text"];

// Will be implemented soon, raise a GitHub issue if you need this feature https://github.com/GetStream/stream-chat-unity/issues/

// Android SDK

// Translate message to French
ChannelClient channelClient = client.channel("messaging", "general");

Message message = new Message();
message.setText("Hello, I would like to have more information about your product.");

channelClient.sendMessage(message).enqueue(result -> {
  if (result.isSuccess()) {
    String messageId = result.data().getId();

    client.translate(messageId, "fr").enqueue(translationResult -> {
      if (translationResult.isSuccess()) {
        Message translatedMessage = translationResult.data();
        String translation = translatedMessage.getI18n().get("fr_text");
      } else {
        // Handle translationResult.error()
      }
    });
  } else {
    // Handle result.error()
  }
 });


// Backend SDK
var messageRequest = MessageRequest.builder()
    .id(messageId)
    .text("Hello, I would like to have more information about your product.")
    .userID(userId)
    .build();
chat.channel(channelType, channelId)
    .sendMessage(SendMessageRequest.builder().message(messageRequest).build());
// returns the message.text translated into French
var response = chat.translateMessage(messageId,
    TranslateMessageRequest.builder().language("fr").build())
    .execute();
System.out.println(response.getData().getMessage().getI18n().get("fr_text"));
// "Bonjour, J'aimerais avoir plus d'informations sur votre produit."

The endpoint returns the translated message, updates it and sends a message.updated event to all users on the channel.

i18n data

When a message is translated, the i18n object is added. The i18n includes the message text in all languages and the code of the original language.

The i18n object has one field for each language named using this convention language-code_text

Here is an example after translating a message from english into French and Italian.

{
  "fr_text": "Bonjour, J'aimerais avoir plus d'informations sur votre produit.",
  "it_text": "Ciao, vorrei avere maggiori informazioni sul tuo prodotto.",
  "language": "en"
}

Automatic translation

Automatic translation translates all messages immediately when they are added to a channel and are delivered to the other users with the translated text directly included.

Automatic translation works really well for 1-1 conversations or group channels with two main languages.

Let's see how this works in practice:

1. A user sends a message and automatic translation is enabled

2. The language set for that user is used as source language (if not the source language will be automatically detected)

3. The message text is translated into the other language in used on the channel by its members

Enabling automatic translation

Automatic translation is not enabled by default. You can enable it for your application via API or CLI from your backend. You can also enable auto translation on a channel basis.

// enable auto-translation only for this channel
await channel.update({ auto_translation_enabled: true });

// ensure all messages are translated in english for this channel
await channel.update({
  auto_translation_enabled: true,
  auto_translation_language: "en",
});

// auto translate messages for all channels
await client.updateAppSettings({ auto_translation_enabled: true });

// Backend SDK

// enable auto-translation only for this channel
chat.channel("channeltype", "channelid")
    .update(UpdateChannelRequest.builder()
        .data(ChannelInputRequest.builder().autoTranslationEnabled(true).build())
        .build());

// ensure all messages are translated in english for this channel
chat.channel("channeltype", "channelid")
    .update(UpdateChannelRequest.builder()
        .data(ChannelInputRequest.builder()
            .autoTranslationEnabled(true)
            .autoTranslationLanguage("en")
            .build())
        .build());

// auto translate messages for all channels
client.updateApp(UpdateAppRequest.builder().autoTranslationEnabled(true).build()).execute();

// enable auto-translation only for this channel
$client->updateChannel("messaging", "general", new Models\UpdateChannelRequest(
    data: new Models\ChannelInputRequest(autoTranslationEnabled: true),
));

// ensure all messages are translated in english for this channel
$client->updateChannel("messaging", "general", new Models\UpdateChannelRequest(
    data: new Models\ChannelInputRequest(
        autoTranslationEnabled: true,
        autoTranslationLanguage: "en",
    ),
));

// auto translate messages for all channels
$client->updateApp(new Models\UpdateAppRequest(autoTranslationEnabled: true));

from getstream.models import ChannelInputRequest

# enable auto-translation only for this channel
channel.update(data=ChannelInputRequest(auto_translation_enabled=True))

# ensure all messages are translated in english for this channel
channel.update(data=ChannelInputRequest(auto_translation_enabled=True, auto_translation_language="en"))

# auto translate messages for all channels
client.update_app(auto_translation_enabled=True)

require 'getstream_ruby'
Models = GetStream::Generated::Models

# enable auto-translation only for this channel
client.chat.update_channel('messaging', channel_id, Models::UpdateChannelRequest.new(
  data: Models::ChannelInputRequest.new(auto_translation_enabled: true)
))

# ensure all messages are translated in english for this channel
client.chat.update_channel('messaging', channel_id, Models::UpdateChannelRequest.new(
  data: Models::ChannelInputRequest.new(
    auto_translation_enabled: true,
    auto_translation_language: 'en'
  )
))

# auto translate messages for all channels
client.common.update_app(Models::UpdateAppRequest.new(auto_translation_enabled: true))

channel := client.Chat().Channel("messaging", "channel-id")

// enable auto-translation only for this channel
channel.Update(ctx, &getstream.UpdateChannelRequest{
	Data: &getstream.ChannelInputRequest{
		AutoTranslationEnabled: getstream.PtrTo(true),
	},
})

// ensure all messages are translated in english for this channel
channel.Update(ctx, &getstream.UpdateChannelRequest{
	Data: &getstream.ChannelInputRequest{
		AutoTranslationEnabled:  getstream.PtrTo(true),
		AutoTranslationLanguage: getstream.PtrTo("en"),
	},
})

// auto translate messages for all channels
client.UpdateApp(ctx, &getstream.UpdateAppRequest{
	AutoTranslationEnabled: getstream.PtrTo(true),
})

// enable auto-translation only for this channel
await chat.UpdateChannelAsync(channel.Type, channel.Id, new UpdateChannelRequest
{
    Data = new ChannelInput { AutoTranslationEnabled = true },
});

// ensure all messages are translated in english for this channel
await chat.UpdateChannelAsync(channel.Type, channel.Id, new UpdateChannelRequest
{
    Data = new ChannelInput { AutoTranslationEnabled = true, AutoTranslationLanguage = "en" },
});

// auto translate messages for all channels
await client.UpdateAppAsync(new UpdateAppRequest { AutoTranslationEnabled = true });

// Will be implemented soon, raise a GitHub issue if you need this feature https://github.com/GetStream/stream-chat-unity/issues/

Set user language

In order for auto translation to work, you must set the user language or specify a destination language for the channel using the auto_translation_language field (see previous code example).

// Sets the user language
client.connectUser(user = User(id = "userId", language = "en"), token = "userToken").await()

// Backend SDK

// sets the user language
await client.connectUser({ id: "userId", language: "en" }, userToken);

// watch a channel
await client.channel("messaging", "melting-pot");

// Backend SDK

// sets the user language
client.updateUsers(UpdateUsersRequest.builder()
    .users(Map.of("userId", UserRequest.builder().id("userId").language("en").build()))
    .build()).execute();

// sets the user language
$client->updateUsers(new Models\UpdateUsersRequest(
    users: ["userid" => new Models\UserRequest(id: "userid", language: "en")],
));

from getstream.models import UserRequest

# sets the user language
client.upsert_users(UserRequest(id="userId", language="en"))

require 'getstream_ruby'
Models = GetStream::Generated::Models

# sets the user language
client.common.update_users(Models::UpdateUsersRequest.new(
  users: { 'userId' => Models::UserRequest.new(id: 'userId', language: 'en') }
))

// sets the user language
client.UpdateUsers(ctx, &getstream.UpdateUsersRequest{
	Users: map[string]getstream.UserRequest{
		"userId": {
			ID:       "userId",
			Language: getstream.PtrTo("en"),
		},
	},
})

// sets the user language
await client.UpsertUsersAsync(new UpdateUsersRequest
{
    Users = new Dictionary<string, UserRequest>
    {
        { user.Id, new UserRequest { Id = user.Id, Language = "en" } },
    },
});

// Will be implemented soon, raise a GitHub issue if you need this feature https://github.com/GetStream/stream-chat-unity/issues/

// Sets the user language
ChatClient.shared.connectUser(
    userInfo: UserInfo(id: "userId", language: .english),
    token: userToken
)

Caveats and limits

• Translation is only done for messages with up to 5,000 characters. Blowin' In The Wind from Bob Dylan contains less than 1,000 characters

• Error messages and commands are not translated (ie. /giphy hello)

• When a message is updated, translations are recomputed automatically

• Changing translation settings or user language have no effect on messages that are already translated

• If there are three or more languages being used by channel members, auto-translate will default to the most common language used by the channel members. Therefore, this feature is best suited for groups with a maximum of two main languages.

Available Languages