Customer Agent in your customer's language

Customer Agent responds in the language your customer writes in — on every channel. Whether a shopper messages you in French, German, Japanese, or Arabic, Customer Agent detects the language and replies in it. No setup required.

What this means for your brand

• Every channel: Customer Agent automatically responds in your customer's language on web chat, email, text messaging (SMS), and WhatsApp.
• No configuration needed. Detection happens on every incoming message, and the agent follows the customer's lead if they switch languages mid-conversation.
• No per-language licensing. Multilingual is included in Customer Agent. One thing to be aware of: on SMS, messages in some languages cost more to send because of how carriers encode them — see “Why some languages cost more on SMS” below.

Which languages are supported?

Customer Agent supports 113 languages across all major European, Asian, Middle Eastern, and African writing systems. If a customer writes in one of these languages, Customer Agent will reply in it automatically.

Full list of supported languages

Languages marked with an asterisk (*) appear in the Additional cost text message languages setting. You can turn off replies in these languages on SMS. Actual encoding and segment costs depend on the characters and length of each reply; see “Why some languages cost more on SMS” below. These SMS language settings do not affect web chat, email, or WhatsApp.

Afrikaans* · Albanian* · Amharic* · Arabic* · Armenian* · Assamese* · Azerbaijani* · Bashkir* · Basque* · Belarusian* · Bengali* · Breton* · Bulgarian* · Burmese* · Catalan* · Cebuano · Central Kurdish* · Chechen* · Chinese* · Chuvash* · Cornish · Czech* · Danish · Divehi* · Dutch* · Eastern Mari* · English · Esperanto* · Estonian* · Finnish* · French* · Galician* · Georgian* · German · Goan Konkani* · Greek* · Guarani* · Gujarati* · Hebrew* · Hindi* · Hungarian* · Icelandic* · Ido · Iloko* · Indonesian · Irish* · Italian · Japanese* · Javanese* · Kannada* · Kazakh* · Khmer* · Kirghiz* · Komi* · Korean* · Lao* · Latin* · Latvian* · Lithuanian* · Lojban · Low German · Lower Sorbian* · Luxembourgish* · Macedonian* · Malayalam* · Maltese* · Marathi* · Mongolian* · Nepali* · Norwegian* · Oriya* · Panjabi* · Persian* · Piemontese* · Polish* · Portuguese* · Pushto* · Quechua* · Romanian* · Russian* · Sanskrit* · Scottish Gaelic · Serbian* · Sindhi* · Sinhala* · Slovak* · Slovenian* · Somali · South Azerbaijani* · Spanish* · Sundanese · Swahili · Swedish · Tagalog · Tajik* · Tamil* · Tatar* · Telugu* · Thai* · Tibetan* · Turkish* · Turkmen* · Uighur* · Ukrainian* · Upper Sorbian* · Urdu* · Vietnamese* · Waray · Welsh* · Western Frisian* · Western Panjabi* · Yakut* · Yiddish*

Note: Some Latin-alphabet languages with extended accented characters — for example Vietnamese, Polish, Czech, or Turkish — may also use UCS-2 encoding on SMS depending on the specific characters in a message.

Where multilingual works

• Web chat: Automatic language matching on every message.
• Email: Automatic language matching on every message.
• Text messaging (SMS): Automatic language matching, with brand controls for which languages the agent uses (see below).
• WhatsApp: Automatic language matching on every message.

Managing languages on text messaging

Text messaging is the one channel where replying in another language can change what you pay (see the next section), so it comes with controls:

• All supported languages are on by default. If you do nothing, the agent simply replies in the customer's language.
• Opt out of additional-cost languages. The languages listed under Additional cost text message languages, marked with an asterisk above, can be turned off individually. You keep the ones that matter to your customers and skip the rest.
• Set a fallback language. When a customer writes in a language you've opted out of, the agent responds in your fallback language instead of going silent or handing off. Choose from the languages available in the Fallback language dropdown.

Change SMS language settings

You need permission to edit Customer Agent settings.

1. Navigate to Customer Agent > Guidance, then find the Language section.
2. Under Additional cost text message languages, deselect the languages you do not want the agent to use on SMS.
3. After you deselect at least 1 language, choose a Fallback language for replies to customers who write in those languages.
4. Click Save.

Why some languages cost more on SMS

Multilingual support has no separate per-language fee. Standard SMS segment charges still apply.

SMS messages are billed per segment, and how many characters fit in a segment depends on the message's encoding. A single SMS segment holds up to 160 GSM-7 characters or 70 UCS-2 characters. Some characters, including certain symbols and emojis, count as more than 1 character toward these limits. Longer messages reserve space in each segment to join the segments together, leaving less room for text.

A short reply can still fit in 1 segment in either encoding. A longer reply using UCS-2 can need more segments and cost more to send; the increase is not a fixed multiple. Use the language opt-out controls above to support the languages your customers use and choose a fallback for the others.

Email, web chat, and WhatsApp don't bill by segment, so this doesn't apply to those channels.

What's not multilingual yet

A few things to be aware of as you plan campaigns and content:

• Your uploaded knowledge content (documents, webpages, FAQs) should still be in English. The agent can answer in your customer's language from English source material, but the better your English content, the better the final answer in any language. Native multilingual content support is on our roadmap.
• Custom agents and skills you've configured still use English instructions. The agent will translate its customer-facing reply, but internal reasoning, tool calls, and brand instructions are in English.
• Brand tone of voice instructions are written in English. The agent does its best to carry your tone through to the customer's language, but very brand-specific phrasings (idioms, slogans, taglines) may not always translate naturally.

Tips for getting the best results

• Keep your English knowledge content clear and complete. This is the source of truth Customer Agent uses to answer in any language.
• Use brand voice instructions that focus on principles, not specific phrases. “Warm and friendly, never overly formal” carries across languages better than a specific English catchphrase.
• Spot-check responses in the languages your customers use most. You can do this from the Customer Agent preview panel by chatting in a target language — use the channel selector to test each channel.
• On SMS, review your language list once. Choose which additional-cost languages to keep on and which fallback language to use. Then test replies in the languages your customers use most.

FAQ

Do I need to enable this?
No. Multilingual is on by default across all channels.

Can I turn it off?
You can turn Customer Agent itself on or off for each channel from Customer Agent > Launch. For languages specifically: on text messaging, you can opt out of additional-cost languages and set a fallback language under Customer Agent > Guidance > Language. On web chat, email, and WhatsApp, the agent replies in the customer's language, with no per-language setting to manage.

Will this affect my existing English customers?
No. The agent still detects English and responds in English — exactly as it does today.

Will replying in another language cost me more?
There is no separate per-language fee on email, web chat, or WhatsApp. On SMS, UCS-2 encoding fits fewer characters in each segment, so a reply can cost more if it needs additional segments. The cost depends on the reply's characters and length. Use the language controls to opt out of languages you don't want to support.

Will the agent translate my brand name or product names?
The agent tries to preserve proper nouns (brand names, product names, trademarks) without translating them. If you see a specific product or trademark being translated, let us know.

What if the language detection is wrong?
Detection is highly accurate for clear, single-language messages but can occasionally misclassify very short or code-switched messages (e.g., a one-word reply or a message that mixes two languages). The agent will follow the customer's lead if they switch languages mid-conversation.

Where is this available?
For all Customer Agent customers, on web chat, email, text messaging, and WhatsApp.

Can the agent respond based on where the customer shops, with the right products, policies, and prices?
Yes. You can limit content and skills to regions, and Customer Agent recommends products from the shopper’s market. Language and region are separate: the agent replies in the customer’s language and uses the content for where they shop. See How to set up Customer Agent for multiple countries and regions.

Additional resources