Release Notes - Language IO Parallel Translation for Chat, Tickets, and Messaging

These are the Release Notes for the Language IO Parallel Translation for Chat, Tickets, and Messaging.

If this is your first time installing the application, see the installation instructions here.

v3.3 (2025.04.174)

Improved

Optimization disabled for messages with rich formatting

When optimization is enabled for the app, but the app detects that an outbound message contains any rich formatting (bold, bullet points, etc), it now disables optimization for this message and performs the translation as usual.

When this happens, a tool tip appears when one hovers over the optimization toggle with the following message: “not supported for formatted text”.

 This is to avoid accidentally sending a poorly formatted message to a customer.

Setting the language of the end user in a Custom Field

Organizations can now configure a custom field to store the language of the end user. This allows them to store and retain an unsupported language for a given ticket, chat, or messaging session.

Fixed

Improving triggers for alerts of a language change   

Currently, Language IO has a feature that alerts the agent when the language of the end user may have changed. However, this could be misleading when the user's message contained only numbers, an email address, dates, or short words.

This is now fixed and the Language IO app no longer prompts for redetect when the message contains only these elements. This way, agents cannot accidentally re-detect the language to an incorrect one.

Inaccurate language detection in partial translations 

A bug was found where sometimes, when a ticket mixed two languages (for example most of the content in English and a few sentences in Spanish), and the user language was set to something other than English or Spanish, if the agent partially translated the Spanish text without translating other messages first, the detected language would be English.

This is now fixed and for partial translations, it only detects the language of the selected text if the first translation is a partial one.

v3.2.22 (2025.03.21)

Fixed

Agents received multiple translations of end user messages 

A bug was found where sometimes, when an agent received a message from an end user, the message would be translated over and over multiple times and all the copies posted in the agent's chat window. This was caused by a combination of a slow network connection where translations were delivered more than two seconds after the "original" message and the application interpreting this delay as receiving new source content, which triggered a new translation each time.  

This is now fixed and the translations only occur once as expected.

Missing translations in rapid-fire conversations

A bug was found where, when an end user or an agent would send several messages in quick succession, some of the end user messages would not appear in the LIO tab or would not get translated at all. This happened because the app would still be working on translating a previous message, causing it to ignore translating a subsequent one.

This is now fixed and all messages are translated as expected. 

v3.2.17 (2024.07.10)

Fixed

Messages not sending when "automatically send" is enabled

A bug was found where, when an agent translated a message in Whatsapp or any social messaging channels, in spite of having "automatically send" enabled, the message would not be sent to the end user automatically through this channel, and the end user would receive the translated message as an email. This is caused by a limitation in Zendesk that does not allow the Language IO app to auto-send for these channels.

As a consequence, auto-send is now toggled off in unsupported channels and cannot be turned on, so as to avoid confusion for agents handling conversations.

v3.2.14 (2024.05.16)

New

Translation Optimization

Translation optimization is a Language IO feature where an agent's message passes through a Large Language Model routine that lightly alters the source content to increase the likelihood of a high-quality machine translation. This process is designed to preserve the tone and meaning of the agent's original message.

Translation optimization can be useful when you want to ensure the consistency and quality of translations, for example when you have a large pool of agents who may use different styles to address users. Automated optimization can help you use consistent language while saving on training costs.

For more information about Translation Optimization, see What is the Language IO Translation Optimization feature?

To see how you can use Source Translation in the Zendesk Parallel App Chat, see Using Translation Optimization in Language IO Parallel Translation for Chat, Tickets, and Messaging.

v3.2.4 (2024.03.01)

Fixed 

Formatting errors in posted comments

A bug was found with Zendesk Tickets where, when an agent typed an internal note or public reply, or applied a macro reply, and the reply contained line breaks between paragraphs, the breaks would sometimes show duplicated in the comment, appearing as double spacing, even though the app reflected single breaks as expected.

This is now fixed and both app and comments show the expected line breaks between paragraphs.

v3.2 (2024.01.08)

New 

New "Jump to latest message" button

When an agent scrolls along a thread of messages, a "Jump to latest message"button now appears automatically at the bottom of the window. This allows agents to jump directly to the latest message when necessary, eliminating the need to scroll all the way back.

The button is inverted if the agent elected to display the latest messages on top.

New "unread message" button

When an agent is scrolling along a thread of messages and the end user sends one or more new messages, an "unread message" button now appears automatically at the bottom of the window. This allows agents to jump directly to the new message to proceed with the conversation.

The button is inverted if the agent elected to display the latest messages on top.

Re-detecting language also auto-translates

When an agent clicks on “re-detect locale”, the action now also translate the message from the re-detected locale to their target locale. This way, agents only have to perform a single action to understand the incoming message.

v3.1 (2023.10.23)

New 

Quality Flag Ratings for agents

In our continuous effort to provide the best translations possible, we are introducing a new feature for Agents called Quality Flag Rating.

With Quality Flag Ratings, agents can now rate the quality of the translations of incoming messages from end-users, and flag translations that they judge do not conform to the standard of quality that they expect. These ratings will help Language IO in its constant assessment of translation providers and how each might be best suited for you.

You can check for the presence of quality rating flag by looking for the small red flag icon in the tag row above messages:

This feature is not enabled by default. A new custom setting allows organizations to activate the feature for agents on a user basis.

Improved

Improved UI

Following the last release's UI refresh, Language IO has continued to implement small UI/UX refinements to further improve the application. Improvements include:

• Improved visibility of searched terms and other search behaviour 
• Scrolling behaviour when an agent pastes text into a textbox 
• Better link creation in messages
• and more...

Your feedback is important! Feel free to share your experience and suggestions with your Customer Success Manager.

Fixed 

Agent Reply Translation Line Spacing Issue

A bug was found where the translation of agent replies with multiple paragraphs would result in additional line-breaks appearing either in the translated message sent to the end-user, or in the conversation window on the agent's side. This is now fixed, and correct line spacing should always be maintained going forward.

v3.0.5 (2023.06.26)

New

Truncating messages for better legibility of cases

Agents now have the ability to set the Language IO plugin to truncate messages that have been read before. This results in shorter Chat threads, to improve the overall legibility of a chat as a whole and mitigate overcrowding of the Chat window for longer conversations. This matches the "truncation of long messages"  feature you can find in the native Zendesk User Interface.

Translating transcripts for better agent-to-agent transfers

Agent to agent transfers may not always happen between agents who speak the same language. This means that new agents may need to retranslate the whole conversation transcript to understand the customer's issue. This is now possible: When the retranslation of the transcript is complete, it becomes visible as an internal note in the conversation window for the new agent's reference.

User Interface Updates (Q3 2023)

This document focuses on the updates to the User Interface of the Language IO plugin. These changes will be live in early Q3 2023.

Header row

The header row at the top of the plugin shows the detected languages of the agent and customer, and various options to the right. From left to right, the options are filtering, sorting, search and a menu

Filtering

The filter allows you to show only messages that match certain criteria. For example, you can show only translated messages or only internal notes. By default, all messages and translations appear:

Sorting

You can sort messages by oldest or most recent first:

Message Search

You can search for a specific string of text in the message history (This features currently only works with exact text matches).

Menu

The three-dot menu is where you can find the options to expand all messages, or translate the entire transcript (for example when the case transfers to a new agent who speaks another language):

Header tags

The header of each message now shows tags that let you easily identify its status: customer message or agent response, translated or untranslated, etc., and the date it was received or translated.

For example, this is the original, untranslated internal message from an agent:

The subject of an internal message, partially translated:

The subject of an internal message after retranslation:

Collapse Subject

Clic on the subject tag to collapse the subject container. This frees screen space for you to scroll through other messages:

Message Truncation

You can truncate messages that are longer than eight lines. When a ticket loads, messages that are longer than eight lines are truncated automatically (except the most recent message):

Translation buttons

Messages that have not yet been translated show the Translate button:

Messages that have been translated once show the Retranslated button:

Once a message is retranslated, the translate option is greyed out and shows as All translations completed.

Message Options

The menu next to the button gives you the possibility to re-detect locale, do a partial translation (if the message has not been translated yet), and other options:

Example 1: Partial Translation

Example 2: Full-screen message

Conversation window

The conversation window is now packed with more options:

The previous version disabled this textbox in ticket mode, and you could only enter text via the Native Zendesk textbox. This is no longer the case and starting from v3.1.0, agents can type directly into the textbox in chat, messaging, and tickets.

Rich Text

The text field is now more versatile, with the ability to do rich text formatting: italics, bold, lists, etc.:

The menu to the right of the text field still gives you basic information about the ticket (Customer Name and ID, Ticket ID), as well as the possibility to select Machine or Human Translation:

Hyperlinks

Channels that allow Rich Text (see previous point) also allow for posting hyperlinks:

Comment Types and Message Channel Menu

This menu gives you the ability to switch between Comment Types and Message Channels in the Language IO app:

Public Reply (Tickets) and Email (Messaging)

To translate a Public Reply or an Email, click on the lightning bolt icon. If “automatically send after translation” is toggled on, the message is sent. Otherwise, click on the “Submit…” button on the bottom right corner to send the translated message.

Internal Notes (Tickets and Messaging)

Internal notes are not translated when you send them from the Language IO app. To post an internal note, click on the “lightning bolt” icon.

When the internal option is selected, the message is not translated. Instead, the tooltip on the translate button says “Post”.

Messaging and Chat

To send a message or chat, the agent will click “enter”. To translate the message the agent can click on the lightning bolt icon, then click “enter” to send. Or the “translation on” toggle can be on before clicking on “enter” to send the message.

It is not possible to switch to the email channel while in messaging due to limitations with the Zendesk platform. However, if you need to send an email from messaging, you can switch to the email channel from the native Zendesk channel menu. Conversely, if Email is selected, you cannot switch to Messaging from the Language IO tab; however, you can switch back to internal note first, then to messaging. Again, this is due to limitations with the Zendesk platform.

Example:

Emojis

When available, you can open the emoji menu with a click on the smiley icon:

Expand Textbox

You can expand the textbox in both the main and full screen views to create more space for the agent to draft longer replies:

v3.0 (2023.01.03)

Improved

Improved translation experience and workflows for agents

We made multiple enhancements to improve the translation experience for Zendesk agents. Some of these improvements include:

• Better handling of attachments in translation workflows, notably when the option "automatically send after translation"  is selected,
• Improvements in the detection of a user’s language when they submit their first chat, ticket, or message (see also the "Custom "LIO Detected Locale Code" field is now optional" section below),
• Better guidance to agents about the translation options available to them, based on the type of support session,
• And more!

With this new version, agents can expect to see improvements to their workflows that give them, and their end-users, a much more seamless response process via translation.

Toggling automatic translation of inbound messages on and off

You can now toggle automatic translations of inbound (customer) messages on and off. This was previously only possible for outbound (agent) messages. You can also define separate default actions for tickets or chats/messaging. You can find the relevant toggles in the custom settings of your Language IO app:

This expanded range of behaviors gives you greater flexibility to handle customer messages, allowing the agent further control to determine when translation is needed.

When automatic translation is turned off, agents must click the "lightning" button to translate the message:

The translation appears in the conversation just like the automated ones.

Custom "LIO Detected Locale Code" field is now optional

It is no longer required for admins to configure the custom field "LIO Detected Locale Code" in Zendesk for the Language IO plugin to function. We made several behind-the-scene improvements to the new version of Language IO for Zendesk Chat & Tickets so that it can now detect and store the conversation language without requiring this field to be created.

While this custom field is now optional, Language IO still recommends that you keep it in the admin section of Zendesk in Objects and rules > Tickets > Fields, as it can be useful for analytics purposes and could give better granularity and fine-detail in the data. For example, you could create precise filters in your reports to see the number of tickets in a given language versus others, which can help you in determining how to best address the queries you receive from your users. 

(Click to enlarge)