BeDesk is designed to support a global audience, allowing you to provide a seamless experience for both your agents and customers in their native language. You can translate the entire helpdesk interface, live chat widget, outgoing email and all other user-facing text content.
BeDesk also has powerful language detection capabilities to determine the language to show to user on the fly.
BeDesk automatically sets language attribute on user's profile first time that customer is seen and on subsequent interactions. It is determined in multiple ways:
Browser Preferences: Matches the language settings sent by the user's browser.
Geolocation: Estimates the user's language based on their IP address.
AI Content Detection: the AI detects the language from the user's messages in conversations and can switch the interface accordingly.
Set Manually: You can also change the language for the user manually at any time by setting language attribute for user from user profile, using flows, triggers or livechat settings object.
AI agent by default will also respond in the same language user's initial message was in.
Language for agents and admins will also be auto detected during registration or when agent invitation is accepted. Agents can change their preferred language from their profile page at any time.
All language management is done from the admin -> translations page.
Here you will see a list of all currently available localizations. As well as various management options related to translations.
To add a new language, click the + Add new localization button from the main translations page. You will be prompted to enter the language Name (e.g., "Français") and its two-letter Language code (e.g., "fr"). Click Save to add it to your list of available languages.
You can easily translate all the content automatically using an LLM or some other 3rd party service by exporting all translation strings into a single file and import them back once completed. Click the vertical ellipsis menu (...) next to the desired language to find these options:
Download: This will export all the original English translation strings into a json file. You can send this file to LLM or a translation service to get filled out.
Upload: Once the translation file is complete, use this option to upload it. BeDesk will automatically apply all the translations from the file.
From the localizations list, click the ellipsis menu (...) next to a language and select Translate.
On the translation page, you'll find a list of phrases. Each item shows the original English text on top with an editable field below for your translation. You can use the search bar to quickly find specific text.
You can easily make any custom added content translatable from the translations page.
Click + Add new button.
Define the original text (key).
Enter the translation.
Make sure key matches the text shown on the site exactly, including letter casing.
You can configure default localization behaviors from the Admin > Settings > Localization page. These settings control the initial experience for new users and guests.
Default Timezone: This dropdown determines the timezone that is automatically applied to new users and guests. You can set a specific timezone or select "Based on browser settings" to detect it automatically.
Default Language: Similarly, this sets the default language for new users. Selecting "Based on browser settings" will automatically apply the language preference from the user's browser.
As mentioned above user's language will be updated automatically based on the content of user messages or if their geolocation changes.
This setting controls the default level of detail (verbosity) for dates displayed across the entire site. While the specific order of the month and day is adjusted based on the user's locale, you can choose from several formats:
Auto: Automatically selects the best format.
Short: e.g., 08/17/2025
Medium: e.g., Aug 17, 2025
Long: e.g., August 17, 2025
Full Date and Time: e.g., 08/17/2025, 06:58:17 PM
Time Only: e.g., 06:59 PM
You can turn this setting off to completely disable translations functionality on the site, if your customers will be speaking a single language only (does not have to be english).
Enabled: The site supports multiple languages, and users can switch between the available locales.
Disabled: The site will be locked to the default language. Users will not be able to change their language setting.