AI translator for the guest

A foreign guest at the counter usually means gestures, a translation app in someone else's phone and a hope that everyone understood correctly. And an app from the store knows neither your menu nor your rules: it will translate "does this contain nuts?", but it will not help you answer.

The AI translator is a conversation across two phones. The guest opens a page on their own device (via the QR code on the counter, no sign-in and no app) and speaks or types in their language. The employee sees the translation large and the original small in the panel, and next to it hints from the venue's knowledge base: what your documents actually say about nuts, about delivery and about refunds.

Open: Admin panel → AI translator (admin.cenaly.com/translator). The section is hidden by default — switch on the "AI translator" card in the app store.

What it looks like#

Side	What they see
The employee	the Conversation, Past conversations and Settings tabs. Inside a conversation: the feed of turns, the translation large, the original small, hints from the knowledge base, an input box with a microphone and the "End" button
The guest	a page with no sign-in: a consent notice → a language choice (buttons labelled in the languages themselves) → the feed, a microphone, a keyboard and a "Call the staff" button

There is also a single-device mode: the employee's phone is passed from hand to hand, the speaking side is chosen with a big switch, and everything internal (hints and originals) is hidden while the guest is looking.

What you need to start#

What	Why
The extension card switched on	the section is opt-in: without it there is no "AI translator" in the menu
A knowledge base collection with the "Translator" or "Call assist" purpose	it supplies the hints for the employee and the term context for the translation. Without one the translation still works but is marked "translated without knowledge-base context"
Two devices (or one, in pass-the-phone mode)	the guest's phone and the employee's phone, tablet or PC. The guest needs internet to open the page
The account's AI balance	translation and server-side speech are paid AI calls of the owner
Permissions	the settings are changed by the owner; the conversation is run by an employee with access to the location

Step 1. Configure the translator#

The Settings tab (owner only; the employee sees it locked — they should be able to see the rules the translator works by in their room):

Setting	What it defines
Knowledge base collection	where the hints and the term context come from
Your language	the employee's default language
Languages the guest may choose	the buttons on the guest page; by default — the languages enabled for the account
Speech	four independent modes: "The guest speaks into the phone", "You speak into the phone", "Your replies are read out to the guest", "The guest's lines are read out to you". Each is On our server (paid, more accurate, works on any phone), In the browser (free, but not on every phone) or Off
Keep conversation history	off by default; when on — 7, 30 or 90 days. This is processing of personal data, so you choose the term yourself
Do not translate	brands and names that are copied as they are
Glossary	your term → how it must be translated into a particular language
Consent text	what the guest sees before the start; empty means our default text

Step 2. Start a conversation and connect the guest#

The Conversation tab → pick the location, your language, the guest's language (or "The guest will choose"), the knowledge base collection and the mode: Two devices (pairing by QR) or One device (pass the phone). Press Start conversation.
Pairing opens: a QR code, an eight-character code in the ABCD-EFGH shape and a link. The guest scans the QR or types the code on their page — the code and the link are single-use and live for two minutes.
The guest sees the consent notice (speech is recognised, text is processed by AI, kept no longer than the conversation, typing is an option), accepts it and picks a language.
The conversation header turns to Guest connected. If the code went stale — New code; it disconnects the guest who is already connected, and it warns you about that.

A conversation closes by itself: 30 minutes of inactivity or 4 hours from the start, whichever comes first. The remaining time is shown as "Closes after inactivity in …".

Step 3. How a conversation goes#

The employee types in the input box or dictates. The guest does the same on their side: the microphone (hold, or tap-tap; a clip of up to 20 seconds) or the keyboard.
Voice always passes a review screen. The recognised text is shown BEFORE sending, so it can be corrected. That is the important part: an invisible recognition error is the usual reason people stop trusting products like this.
In the feed — the translation large, the original small; for the employee's turn you can see whether it arrived ("accepted", "delivered", "the guest is offline — they will see it when they reconnect").
Honest warnings. Phone numbers, amounts with a currency, order and booking numbers, e-mails and links are protected and restored after the translation. If the numbers in the original and the translation diverge, the turn is marked Check the numbers; there are also "Check names, amounts and links" and "Worth a second look". Ambiguity (who "he" is, which term exactly) arrives as an internal line "Clarify: …" — only the employee sees it.
Read-aloud. In server mode a turn has a ▶ Listen button; in browser mode there is a 🔊 toggle. On an iPhone sound only starts after you touch the screen — that is the browser's rule, not a fault.
Made a mistake — "Correct". A turn can be rewritten, and the previous one is marked "Corrected".
"The guest is calling the staff". The guest has a call button: in the panel it raises a banner. They cannot press it more often than once every half a minute.
Connection. If the live channel sags, the page says so honestly — "Reconnecting…" — and the turns still arrive, just by polling every few seconds.

Step 4. Hints and "Prepare a reply"#

To the right of the feed are the hints from the knowledge base: cards matched to the guest's turn from your collection. It is the same hint pack that powers agent assist on a phone call — a separate line and for the employee only: a card marked "🔒 internal — do not read out" is visible but has no send button.

The guest gets exactly what you confirmed:

Prepare a reply on a hint card or in the input box;
a preview in two parts — Your text and What the guest will see;
Send to the guest.

What the translator does not do: it does not invent facts, prices or promises on your behalf. The knowledge base is a canvas for terms, not the author of the answer: "and how much is this?" will be translated as a question, not "completed" with a price out of thin air.

Step 5. Ending a conversation and the history#

End — and the translator honestly asks what happens to the text: with history on, the transcript is saved to "Past conversations"; with history off, it is gone.

The Past conversations tab appears when history is on: a list by month, the number of turns, the transcript. In a saved transcript phone numbers and long digit sequences are masked.

Audio is never stored anywhere — neither with history on nor with it off: a clip lives exactly as long as it takes to recognise it.

Limitations#

This is a young feature. The first wave: the conversation, the hints, server-side speech. Multilingual knowledge base builds (a phrasebook, questions in the guests' languages) are the next step and do not exist yet.
In the Russian cloud (cenaly.ru) speech is server-side only. Browser mode is unavailable there under personal-data requirements, and the server converts it to the server mode. Yandex SpeechKit does the work: recognition in 15 languages, read-aloud in six voices (Russian, English, German, Kazakh, Uzbek, Hebrew). For a language outside those lists the microphone and the ▶ button simply are not shown — the keyboard remains, and the screen says so honestly.
Browser mode is not on every phone. It is free, but on an iPhone, for instance, it may be missing entirely; the server mode works everywhere.
Hints need a collection with the "Translator" or "Call assist" purpose and a built pack. No pack — translation still runs, but the turn is marked "translated without knowledge-base context".
Limits of a single turn: a voice clip up to 20 seconds, read-aloud up to 2000 characters, no more than 30 turns a minute per conversation. That is protection from an accidental flood, not a tariff.
History is off by default and, once on, keeps text only, with numbers masked. The terms are 7, 30 or 90 days — there is nothing longer.
Settings belong to the owner. An employee sees them but does not change them.
The guest needs internet. If they have none, the single-device mode on your phone is the way.
AI calls are paid. Translation and server-side speech are charged to the owner's AI balance; when it runs out, the employee sees "AI balance exhausted" with a link to the balance, and the guest gets an anonymous "could not translate". There is currently no separate charge for the extension itself.

Troubleshooting#

Symptom	What to check
"No collection with the Translator purpose"	open the knowledge base and tick "Translator" on a collection (a call-assist collection works too)
The guest cannot connect	the code and the link live for two minutes and are single-use — press "New code". Check that the guest has internet
"The code is stale — get a new one"	the same: issue a fresh QR with "New code"
"The browser did not allow the microphone"	allow microphone access in the site settings, on your side or the guest's — or simply type
"Recognition does not know this language"	the language is outside the speech engine's table: the keyboard remains, and translation still works
"There is no voice for this language"	there is no read-aloud for it; the guest still sees the translated text
No sound on an iPhone	audio starts only after a touch on the screen; if browser mode does not work at all, switch speech to "On our server"
"AI balance exhausted"	top up on the subscription page — translation is paused until you do
"Too many turns in a minute"	take a pause: the flood protection kicked in
Turns arrive late, "Reconnecting…"	the live channel sagged, and the page polls the server every few seconds — nothing is lost
The guest sees "could not translate"	look at your own feed: the real reason is there (balance, language, provider failure) — billing details are deliberately not shown to the guest

A symptom-by-symptom guide is in troubleshooting; if nothing helped, write to us — how to get help.

FAQ#

No. The guest opens a page from a QR code or a code — no sign-in, no account, no installation. All they do is accept the consent notice and pick a language.

What if the guest has no internet?#

Then the single-device mode works: the conversation runs on your phone, which you pass from hand to hand, and you choose the speaking side with a big switch.

Does the guest see the hints from my knowledge base?#

No. Hints are a separate line and are for the employee only; a card marked "internal" has no send button at all. The guest gets exactly what you confirmed with "Send to the guest".

Is the conversation recorded?#

Audio never. Text only if you switched history on, and then for the chosen term (7, 30 or 90 days), with phone numbers and long digit sequences masked.

Can the translator answer the guest instead of the employee?#

No, and that is deliberate. It translates, shows hints and prepares a draft reply — but a turn reaches the guest only after your confirmation.

Which languages does it work in?#

We translate between your language and the guest's language from the list you allowed in the settings (by default, the languages enabled for the account). Voice has its own limits — see "Limitations", especially for cenaly.ru.

How much does it cost?#

There is no separate charge for the extension right now. What is paid for are the AI calls themselves: translating turns and server-side speech, charged to the owner's AI balance and visible as the "AI translator" line in AI spend on the subscription page.

Will a tablet on the counter do?#

Yes: the section works in an ordinary browser and in the app. A convenient setup for a hotel or a salon is a tablet for the employee and a phone for the guest.

Knowledge base — collections, purposes and the glossary: where the translator gets its terms and hints
App store — where the "AI translator" is switched on
Subscription — the AI balance and the "AI translator" usage line
AI models and your own key — which provider and model power the AI features
Agent assist — the same knowledge-base hints, on a phone call instead
Guest chat — messaging with the guest when there is no face-to-face conversation
Employees and shifts — who may run a conversation and who may change the settings
How to get help — if the guest cannot connect or the microphone stays silent

🗣️ AI translator for the guest