Translate messages on WhatsApp: from copy and paste to a command

Being able to translate messages on WhatsApp stops being a detail the day your group welcomes someone who does not speak the group's language. An exchange student, a customer from another country, a cousin who lives in Spain: if nobody understands what the person wrote, they go quiet, and the conversation loses exactly the person who just arrived.

This guide shows the manual way, which works anywhere, and how to let the group itself translate text, images and audio with Becca commands. At the end, the limits every automatic translation has.

When translation is needed

• Exchange or language study groups, with people from several countries
• Customer groups in which some buyers are outside Brazil
• Family or friends groups with relatives living in another country
• Communities with foreign members who follow the notices and need to understand the rules

In all of these cases the problem is the same: the conversation splits between people who understand and people left out. Translating stops being an individual favor and becomes part of how the group works.

The manual way: copy and paste

The path everyone knows: copy the message, open a translation website or app, paste it, choose the language and copy the result back into the chat. It works and costs nothing. The problem is the routine: several taps for every message, the conversation loses its rhythm and, in a group of 50 people, every member has to repeat the process alone.

It also does not help when the text comes inside a photo or an audio message. Then you have to type everything by hand or listen to the whole audio before translating.

Translate right in the group with Becca

With Becca, any member writes !traduzir followed by the text, or replies to the message they want to understand with !traduzir. The answer appears in the chat itself, for everyone to see, in the group's language. Becca detects the original language on her own.

An admin sets that language with !idioma, choosing between pt, en and es. For example, !idioma en puts the group in English. Change it whenever you need, and the bot starts answering and translating into the new language.

The translation, photo reading, transcription and voice commands are open to any member, not only admins, so nobody has to ask the leadership. Short, objective texts give a better result that is easier to check. For example: someone writes in Portuguese 'Oi, pessoal, chego na sexta e queria saber onde vai ser a reunião', a member replies to it with !traduzir and, in a group set to English, Becca sends:

Text in photos and audio: read, transcribe, translate

When the message comes as an image, like a poster, a screenshot or a menu, send the photo with !lerfoto as the caption, or reply to the image with !lerfoto. Becca extracts the text, and then you reply to her message with !traduzir. One important warning: the image text reader is set up for English. It does well with printed, sharp, English text, but it can get Portuguese and Spanish accents wrong and should not be expected to read alphabets such as Arabic, Chinese or Cyrillic. A crooked, blurry photo or decorative lettering makes the result worse.

Audio is similar: reply to the audio or video with !transcrever, wait for the text to appear (a long audio can take a while) and reply to it with !traduzir. A long audio in another language becomes text that everyone can read quietly, without headphones. Quality depends on how clear the recording is.

Hear the text aloud

Sometimes reading is not enough, especially for someone learning the language who wants to hear how it sounds. !falar turns text into audio (up to 500 characters), but always in a Brazilian Portuguese voice. To hear another language, use !gtts: it accepts up to 200 characters, Becca lists numbered languages and accents, and you reply with the number. !gtts only reads the text typed with the command, so translate first with !traduzir and send the translated text to !gtts.

In an exchange group, !gtts makes pronunciation practice: the student hears the sentence and repeats it. In a customer group, it makes a welcome message that people understand by listening, without depending on reading.

Limits of automatic translation

Automatic translation is great for the general meaning and weak on nuance. Slang, irony, chat abbreviations, regional expressions and food names often come out wrong or too literal. In Brazilian Portuguese this is common: slang from your group can turn into a sentence that makes no sense in another language.

• Write short, direct sentences, with little slang, when you know they will be translated
• When in doubt, ask the person to rephrase with other words
• For prices, deadlines, addresses or anything involving money, confirm with someone who speaks the language

Next step

Define the group's main language and let everyone know translation is one command away. If you want !traduzir, !lerfoto, !transcrever and !gtts working in your group, add Becca: R$ 15 per group per month, no lock-in, paid by Pix or card.