Languages

Zubby replies in the shopper’s language by default. The agent detects language from the first message, the widget locale, or the browser Accept-Language header — in that order. You can override or lock that behavior to fit your storefront’s strategy.

Detection order

1. Explicit message language — the strongest signal. If a shopper opens in French, the AI replies in French.
2. Widget context — what your storefront pushes via window.Zubby.context.locale. Shopify and WooCommerce both populate this automatically.
3. Accept-Language header — the browser’s preference, used as a fallback for the very first turn before the shopper has typed.

Supported locales

Zubby replies in 25 languages with full retrieval quality. The underlying language models support far more; the difference is that for the listed set we have validated KB matching, tool prompts, and the widget UI.

Tier 1 (full support, widget UI translated): English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (BR + PT), Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish.

Tier 2 (AI replies translated, widget UI in English): Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Romanian, Greek, Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Hindi, Malay, Tagalog.

Catalog content in another language

If your products have multilingual fields (Shopify markets or WooCommerce WPML), Zubby retrieves the language that matches the conversation. When a translation is missing, we fall back to the default language but flag the gap in the dashboard so you can fill it in your CMS.

Locking to a single language

Some stores prefer a single-language experience. Under AI → Languages → Strategy:

• Auto (default) — detect and follow the shopper.
• Force locale — always reply in the chosen language. If the shopper writes in another, the AI politely asks them to continue in the supported language or offers a translation link.
• Offer switcher — show a dropdown inside the widget so the shopper can pick.

Per-market personas

On Growth and higher, you can configure a different system prompt per locale. Use it to adjust tone (more formal in Japanese, more casual in Brazilian Portuguese), market-specific opinions, or do-not-say rules that differ by jurisdiction.

Translation quality

We measure translation quality with BLEU + human review on a rotating sample. Below 92 BLEU on tier 1 we’d swap the underlying model — so far we’ve hit that bar on every release. If you notice a translation issue, flag the conversation; the agent learns from the correction.

Email language

Recovery emails and journey messages are sent in the shopper’s last detected language, or in the locale stored on the customer record if you have one. Configure default language for guest checkouts under Recovery → Defaults.