AI Translations is an AI-powered translation feature that helps your organization serve community members in multiple languages without maintaining separate communities for each locale.
When enabled, it can automatically translate supported content and key interface elements into the viewer’s preferred language, so members can read discussions, replies, and other key content in the language that’s most comfortable for them, while still allowing them to switch back to the original authored text when needed.
AI Translations respects both Admin control and user choice:
- Admins control which languages are available for translation, and if your community uses subcommunities, which subcommunities have AI Translation enabled.
- Users can opt out of AI processing for their own content.
IMPORTANT: For privacy and data management reasons, AI Translations doesn't translate sensitive details like user names and email addresses.
Overview
AI Translations is designed to support multilingual communities without having to create and maintain separate language-specific subcommunities for every audience.
AI Translations:
- Uses AI to translate user-generated content and key UI text into a user's preferred language.
- Supports translations for posts, comments, private messages, notifications, and more.
- Preserves the original authored language, allowing users to switch back to it at any time.
- Respects AI-processing opt-out rules, so content authored by users who have opted out of AI processing does not get translated, including when quoted on other pages.
Availability
AI Translations is available on select Vanilla Community plans. If you’re interested in enabling this feature for your community, contact your CSM for more information.
IMPORTANT: Once enabled, AI Translations only applies to new and recently edited content, by default.
How to enable AI Translations
Step 1: Have the AI Translations feature enabled for your community
Currently, you must Contact Vanilla Support and request that AI Translations be enabled for your community.
NOTE: In the future, Admins will be able to turn AI Translations ON/OFF.
Step 2: Enable at least one additional language
Once AI Translations has been enabled:
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Technical > Language Settings.
- On the Language Settings page, enable at least one additional language beyond your default language. These enabled languages are the ones available to your users to be translated.
TIP: You can drag and drop the languages using the grid icons to the left. This allows you to control in which order the languages display to your users in your community (refer to the image below).
Step 3: Confirm the translation feature is available
Once the feature is enabled and at least one additional language is configured, the language picker displays in the community header, at the top right.
Optional AI Translation settings
On the Settings > Technical > Language Settings page, there are a few optional translation-related settings to consider when managing AI Translations for your community:
- Custom Term Translations
- Ignore List
Custom Term Translations
Use Custom Term Translations to build out a set of terms that should always be translated a specific way; for each term, you can provide a custom translation for each of your enabled languages.
Custom terms are great for:
- product names
- branded terms
- industry-specific terminology
- phrases that need a specific translated equivalent
To manage your custom terms:
- Click Manage Custom Terms to display a dialog.
- In the left column, add the source term in your site's default language.
- In the right column:
- Select the language to manage from the dropdown.
- Add the desired term translation for that language.
- Repeat these steps for each language for which you want to provide a custom translation.
- For additional terms, click (+) Add Term to add a new row and repeat these steps.
- Save your changes.
NOTE: If you don't add a custom translation for a specific language, Vanilla uses the standard translation for that language.
Ignore List
Use the Ignore List for words or phrases that should never be translated: words and phrases in your Ignore List will remain the same in every language.
Use this feature for:
- brand names
- acronyms
- product names
- protected terminology
To manage your Ignore List:
- Click Ignore List to display a dialog.
- Add each word or phrase exactly as you want it preserved; separate each word or phrase with a semicolon.
- Save your changes.
- Test translated content to confirm those words and phrases remain unchanged.
Optional setup for subcommunities
If your Vanilla Community leverages subcommunities, you must manually enable AI Translation for each subcommunity before the feature is available for them.
To turn ON/OFF AI Translations for a subcommunity:
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Posts > Subcommunities.
- Edit a subcommunity.
- Toggle ON/OFF the Enable AI Translations for this Subcommunity toggle.
When the toggle is turned on:
- the Locale field remains visible but is disabled; it now displays "AI Translated."
- the subcommunity no longer uses a manually assigned default locale
Style Guides by language
With the AI Translations feature, you can create Style Guides for each of your enabled languages, allowing you to give users a more fully localized experience than text translation alone.
While AI Translations can translate visible text, it cannot translate certain Style Guide elements, such as the privacy policy, documentation links, or regional resources a user should see. A language-specific Style Guide solves that by letting you apply a full Style Guide based on the user’s language.
A language-specific Style Guide can affect the full themed experience, including:
- title bar navigation
- quick links
- header content
- footer content
- logo
- colors
- typography
When it comes to applying Style Guides by language, the method depends on whether your Vanilla community leverages subcommunities or not:
- If you don't use subcommunities, you can apply Styles Guides by language at the site level.
- If you do use subcommunities, you instead apply Style Guides at the subcommunity level.
If a language has no specific assignment, Vanilla falls back to the appropriate default:
- site default Style Guide when subcommunities are not enabled
- subcommunity default Style Guide when they are.
Apply Style Guides by language at the site level
If you're not using subcommunities, you can assign a different Style Guide to each of your enabled languages. This lets you localize theme-controlled elements, such as the title bar, header, footer, quick links, logo, colors, and typography, in addition to translated text.
Once you've created Style Guides for the languages you want to target:
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Appearance > Style Guides.
- Hover over a Style Guide and click Apply.
- In the popup, click the Apply to specific languages option.
- Click the Languages dropdown and assign it to one or more enabled languages.
- Save your changes.
If a user's language has a Style Guide assigned, Vanilla applies that full Style Guide. If not, Vanilla uses the default Style Guide instead.
Apply Style Guides by language at the subcommunity level
If you are using subcommunities, language-specific theming is configured in the subcommunity settings instead of on the main Style Guides page.
Once you've created Style Guides for the languages you want to target:
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Posts > Subcommunities.
- Create a new subcommunity or edit an existing one.
- Enable AI Translations for that subcommunity (the Locale field becomes grayed out and indicates "AI Translated").
- In the Themes by Language section, choose the Style Guide you want to use for each language.
- Save your changes.
If a language-specific Style Guide is assigned, Vanilla uses it for that subcommunity. If not, Vanilla falls back to the subcommunity's default Style Guide.
How to translate content
You can use AI Translations in three ways to enhance your community experience. Each one serves a different purpose, so let's review all three so you understand how they work and when to use each one.
1. Use the Language & Translation setting in your profile to set your preference
On your profile's Account & Privacy Settings page, use the Language & Translation dropdown to set your preferred language across the community.
This setting controls the default language community content will be translated into, as well as the language used for navigation and the emails and notifications you receive.
2. Use the language picker to change your current view
The language picker is the primary front end control for AI Translations. Use it when you want to change the language you're currently viewing in the community.
After you select a language, Vanilla will translate supported content on each community page, including posts, comments, private messages, idea statuses, tags, Group names and descriptions, Category names and descriptions, and some custom layout or dynamic widget content.
3. Use the View Original and View Translation toggle to switch between versions
When you're viewing supported content in a different language than the one in which it was originally written, Vanilla automatically displays the translated version of the content.
If you want to check the original authored text for a specific item, click the View Original toggle next to that post or comment. After you switch to the original version, you can click View Translation to switch back to the translated version.
You may not see these controls on every post or comment. They appear only on supported content where a translated version is available, and they do not appear when you are already viewing the content in its original language.
EXAMPLE: In the image below, my language is set to English, whereas the comment was authored in French. Because of this, the toggle says "View Original" to indicate I can switch it to the original, French language.
If I click the button to translate the comment to French, the button then changes to "View Translation" to indicate the ability to translate it to my preferred language (English).
What content is translated
Currently, AI Translations translates the following content types:
Core content
- Discussion posts
- Comments / replies
- Private messages
Ideation
- Idea statuses
- Ideation notes (e.g., status explanations)
Taxonomy and navigation
- Tags
- Group names and descriptions
- Category names and descriptions
Layouts and dynamic content
- Custom layouts and dynamic content widgets
Notifications
- Email notifications (where supported, this includes subject lines as well as body content)
Quoted content
Quoted rich embeds (e.g., quoted posts in a discussion) follow the page’s translation behavior while still respecting opt-out rules:
- By default, quoted rich embeds translate into the viewer’s preferred language when AI Translations is active.
- If the quoted author has opted out of AI processing, their quoted content remains in the original authored language even when the surrounding page is translated.
- The existing “View original post” action shows the source post in its original language, with quotes also in their original language on that source page.
IMPORTANT: Mixed pages (i.e., where some authors allow AI processing and others have opted out) will naturally show a mix of translated and non-translated content.
Set your AI processing preference
You can control whether your contributed content can be processed by AI for translation purposes. To configure your preferences:
- Access your profile's Account & Privacy Settings page.
- Scroll down to the AI Settings section.
- The Allow AI tools to process my content checkbox controls whether any of Vanilla's AI tools can process your content.
- If unchecked, no AI tool, including AI Translations, can process your content.
- If checked, you can then granularly control which AI tools can process it.
- Check or uncheck the Allow AI Translations box to control whether AI Translations can process and translate your content.
When disabled (opted out), your content:
- Stays in your original authored language, even on translated pages.
- Stays in the original language when quoted by other users as rich embeds.
Personal data handling
AI Translations is designed to reduce privacy risk while still making supported content easier to read in multiple languages.
First, AI Translations doesn't translate names and email addresses. This helps keep personal data recognizable and easier to find if you need to review, delete, or respond to a data privacy request later.
Second, users can control whether their own content is eligible for AI translation. If a user disables the Allow AI Translations preference on their profile, their authored content stays in its original language, including when that content is quoted by someone else on a translated page.
Your organization is still responsible for the personal data stored in your community. AI Translations does not remove your responsibility to manage that data accurately, lawfully, and in a way that supports privacy operations.
Email digest translations
In multilingual communities, admins can manually create per-language versions of the email digest Subject Line, Intro, and Footer. Admins can add and manage one version per-enabled language.
- The translated footer is custom text entered by an Admin; it is not auto-translated by the system.
- When a translation exists for a user’s preferred language, Vanilla sends the translated Subject Line, Intro, and Footer for that language.
- If no translation exists for that language, Vanilla sends the default-language version instead.
NOTE: Rich-text formatting in the Intro and Footer is preserved, links remain valid, and supported tokens or placeholders continue to function.
Manage email digest translations
NOTE: The steps in the How to enable AI Translations section of this article must be complete before following these steps.
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Communications > Digest Settings.
- In the Content section, click Translate.
- In the dialog, your source language content is shown on the left; on the right, select the target language you want to add from the dropdown. You can select from any of your enabled languages.
- Enter the translated Subject Line, Intro, and Footer for that language into their respective text fields.
- Click Save to store the translated version for that language.
- Repeat this process for each additional language you want to support.
NOTE: If you need to update any of your saved language translations, simply return to this page, click the Translate button, select the language you want to update from the dropdown, and make your adjustments.
Global email footer translations
In addition to the Email Digest translation options discussed above, Vanilla also supports translated versions of the global Email Footer used in outgoing notification emails. Admins can add and manage one footer version per-enabled language so recipients receive footer content in their preferred language.
- The translated footer is custom text entered by an Admin; it is not auto-translated by the system.
- If a footer translation exists for the recipient’s preferred language, that version is sent. If not, Vanilla sends the default-language footer.
NOTE: Rich-text formatting, links, and supported tokens continue to work in translated footer content.
Manage global email footer translations
NOTE: The steps in the How to enable AI Translations section of this article must be complete before following these steps.
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Communications > Email Settings.
- In the Email Notifications section, locate the Email Footer field. If your community has multiple languages enabled, click Translate.
- In the dialog, your source language content is shown on the left; on the right, select the target language you want to add from the dropdown. You can select from any of your enabled languages.
- Enter the translated footer content for that language.
- Click Save to store the translated footer version.
- Repeat this process for each additional language you want to support.
NOTE: If you need to update any of your saved language translations, simply return to this page, click the Translate button, select the language you want to update from the dropdown, and make your adjustments.
Why is content not translating?
Some community content may not translate for a few expected reasons:
- The content might have been created before AI Translations was turned on
- Remember, AI Translations only works with new or recently edited content, by default.
- The user who created the content may have opted out of AI features in general or AI Translations specifically.
- The user viewing the content may have opted out of AI features in general or AI Translations specifically.
- The content may be in a language that is not configured for your community.
- The content may be in a subcommunity that is not configured for AI Translations.
- Specific words or terms may be included in the site’s Ignore List.
- An individual’s username, first name, last name, and email address will not be translated.
Supported languages
The following languages can be translated by the AI Translations feature:
- 🇦🇱 Albanian
- 🇪🇹 Amharic
- 🇸🇦 Arabic
- 🇦🇲 Armenian
- 🇧🇩 Bengali
- 🇧🇦 Bosnian
- 🇧🇬 Bulgarian
- 🇲🇲 Burmese
- 🇪🇸 Catalan
- 🇨🇳 Chinese
- 🇭🇷 Croatian
- 🇨🇿 Czech
- 🇩🇰 Danish
- 🇳🇱 Dutch
- 🇪🇪 Estonian
- 🇫🇮 Finnish
- 🇫🇷 French
- 🇬🇪 Georgian
- 🇩🇪 German
- 🇬🇷 Greek
- 🇮🇳 Gujarati
- 🇮🇳 Hindi
- 🇭🇺 Hungarian
- 🇮🇸 Icelandic
- 🇮🇩 Indonesian
- 🇮🇹 Italian
- 🇯🇵 Japanese
- 🇮🇳 Kannada
- 🇰🇿 Kazakh
- 🇰🇷 Korean
- 🇱🇻 Latvian
- 🇱🇹 Lithuanian
- 🇲🇰 Macedonian
- 🇲🇾 Malay
- 🇮🇳 Malayalam
- 🇮🇳 Marathi
- 🇲🇳 Mongolian
- 🇳🇴 Norwegian
- 🇮🇷 Persian
- 🇵🇱 Polish
- 🇵🇹 Portuguese
- 🇮🇳 Punjabi
- 🇷🇴 Romanian
- 🇷🇺 Russian
- 🇷🇸 Serbian
- 🇸🇰 Slovak
- 🇸🇮 Slovenian
- 🇸🇴 Somali
- 🇪🇸 Spanish
- 🇰🇪 Swahili
- 🇸🇪 Swedish
- 🇵🇭 Tagalog
- 🇮🇳 Tamil
- 🇮🇳 Telugu
- 🇹🇭 Thai
- 🇹🇷 Turkish
- 🇺🇦 Ukrainian
- 🇵🇰 Urdu
- 🇻🇳 Vietnamese
IMPORTANT: AI Language Translation is provided at the language level listed above. Vanilla does not warrant the accuracy, quality, or completeness of AI-generated translations, which may vary by language, content type, and subject matter. Translation quality is dependent on the underlying AI model, and regional dialect or locale-specific variants within a supported language are not guaranteed.