Languages & Translation controls the customer-facing languages used by your widget, emails, and review translations.
To update these settings, open your store and go to Settings > Languages & Translation.
Supported languages
- English
- Arabic
- Czech
- Danish
- German
- Spanish
- Estonian
- Finnish
- French
- Hindi
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Norwegian Bokmål
- Dutch
- Polish
- Portuguese (Brazil)
- Portuguese (Portugal)
- Russian
- Swedish
- Thai
- Turkish
- Chinese (Simplified)
- Chinese (Traditional)
Choosing store languages
Default Language is the fallback language for the store. It is used when the visitor’s language cannot be determined or when the requested language is not enabled for the store.
Enabled Locales for Widget, Email, and Review Translation controls the languages your customer-facing content can use. Multiple enabled locales require the Plus plan. Stores on lower plans are limited to one language.
When you add a new enabled locale or change the default language, translations are generated automatically in the background. You can continue using the dashboard while translations are being prepared.
Translating the display widget
The display widget uses the visitor’s locale to decide which language to show.
On a WordPress site, the Reviewbird plugin passes the WordPress locale into the widget. For example, if the customer is viewing the site in French, WordPress can pass a French locale to the widget. The widget sends that locale to Reviewbird, and Reviewbird returns the widget text in that language when it is enabled for the store.
The widget also understands WordPress-style locale codes, such as fr_FR, and normalizes them for translation and date formatting.
Widget text follows this fallback order:
- If the requested language is enabled and a translation exists, the translated text is shown.
- If a translation is not available, your custom widget text is shown.
- If custom text is not set, the default widget text is shown.
- If the requested language is not enabled, the widget uses the store’s Default Language.
Custom text from Reviews > Display Widget, including headings, button text, form labels, error messages, success messages, and other widget copy, is included in the translation process.
Translating emails
Review emails use the email’s locale when they are sent. This includes review request emails, reminders, discount emails, review confirmation emails, review reply notifications, review published emails, and review edit link emails.
Email text follows the same general fallback behavior: translated text is used when available, then your custom email content, then the default email content.
Variables such as customer name, product name, store name, and review links are inserted after the translated email content is prepared.
Translating customer emails
Customer emails are sent in the locale saved on the email record. Reviewbird determines that locale when the email is created.
For automatic review request emails, the locale comes from the customer’s order. On WordPress/WooCommerce stores, Reviewbird uses the locale synced from the WooCommerce order. If the order does not include a locale, the email uses English.
Review reminder emails use the same locale as the original review request email. If the first review request was sent in Spanish, its reminders are also sent in Spanish.
Emails that are created from a review use the review’s locale. This includes Discount, Media Reminder, Review Confirmation, Review Reply Notification, Review Published, and Review Edit Link emails. For example, if a customer submitted a review through the widget while viewing the site in French, follow-up emails for that review use French.
Email text follows this fallback order:
- If the email locale has a completed translation, the translated email text is used.
- If a translation is not available, your custom email text is used.
- If custom text is not set, the default email text is used.
Variables such as customer name, product name, coupon code, review text, and links are inserted after the translated email content is prepared.
Translating review pages
Hosted customer pages, such as review submission, review confirmation, review edit, and thank-you pages, use the relevant review or email locale when available. If a locale is not available, they fall back to the store’s Default Language.
Translating showcases
Showcases also accept a locale. When a showcase is loaded with an enabled locale, Reviewbird returns translated showcase text and translated review content when available.
Changing dashboard language
The dashboard language is separate from your store’s customer-facing languages.
To change the language you see in the Reviewbird dashboard, go to your profile and update Dashboard Language. This affects your own dashboard experience, not the language customers see in the widget, emails, or review pages.
Saving changes
After updating Default Language, Enabled Locales for Widget, Email, and Review Translation, or Enable review translation, select Save Settings.
New translations may take a little time to generate. During that time, untranslated content falls back to the best available text.