When a voter writes back in a language other than English, Vottiv automatically translates their reply so you can read it in your inbox. You can also have Vottiv translate your own reply back into the voter's language before it sends — without leaving the conversation.

This article covers translation in the SMS slideover (incoming conversations). For translating a bulk SMS send to a voter group, see Auto-Translate SMS Messages for Multilingual Voter Groups.

Reading Voter Replies in English

When a voter replies in a non-English language, Vottiv detects the language and translates the message to English. In the conversation view, the translated English appears in the message bubble by default, with a small link directly underneath:

Translated from Spanish — show original

Click the link to swap to the voter's original message. Click it again to swap back to the English translation. The toggle is per-message, so you can check the original on one reply while keeping the rest in English.

When isn't a reply translated? Vottiv only translates inbound messages that look like genuine replies needing a response. Short acknowledgments, opt-outs (STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE), and messages already in English are left as-is. If detection isn't confident, Vottiv falls back to the voter's language on file.

Replying in the Voter's Language

If the voter you're replying to has a non-English language on file (or recently sent you a non-English message), a checkbox appears just above the reply text box:

☑ Translate my reply to Spanish before sending (+$0.03)

The box is checked by default. Type your reply in English, click Send, and Vottiv translates it into the voter's language right before delivery. The translated message is what the voter receives.

Uncheck the box if you want your reply to go out exactly as you typed it. The checkbox only appears when the voter's language is something other than English — for English-speaking voters there's nothing extra to do.

How Vottiv Picks the Reply Language

For one-off replies in the slideover, Vottiv picks the target language in this order:

The voter's ballot language, if it's on file.
The voter's general language field, if no ballot language exists.
The language Vottiv detected from the voter's most recent inbound message — useful when there's no language data on file but the voter wrote to you in, say, Vietnamese.

Cost

Translating an outbound reply costs an extra 3¢ on top of the normal SMS rate for that message. This matches the surcharge for bulk auto-translated sends. Inbound translation (reading voter replies in English) is included at no extra charge.

Supported Languages

Translation in the slideover supports the same languages as bulk SMS auto-translation:

Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin & Cantonese), Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Hindi, Punjabi, Somali, Amharic, Farsi, Thai, Haitian Creole, Polish, and Romanian.

FAQs

The voter's reply still shows in their original language. Why?
Either the message was detected as English, it didn't look like a reply that needs a response (for example, a one-word acknowledgement or an opt-out keyword), or detection wasn't confident enough to translate. Click the small link below the message if a "show translation" toggle is available.

I want to type my reply in the voter's language directly. Can I?
Yes — uncheck the Translate my reply box and your message goes out exactly as you typed it.

Does the voter see my English version or the translated version?
Only the translated version. Your English text is not sent.

Do dynamic fields (like voter name) work with translated replies?
Yes. Vottiv preserves personalization tags through translation.

Need Help?

If a translation looks wrong, the toggle isn't appearing where you expect, or you have feedback on translation quality, contact Vottiv support and we'll take a look.