How to change channels midway through a ticket conversation

It is possible to use Unbabel to translate a message via a different channels while a chat or messaging conversation is ongoing. This way, you can send a translated email message to the customer, and resume translating chats once you are done, as many times as it proves necessary.

Changing from Chat/Messaging to Email

To change the channel, simply select the new intended channel from the dropdown list, type your text in a public reply or internal note and click the Unbabel button. Note: you need to use the Unbabel translate button. Internal notes containing #unbabel won't work on the channel change, because they don't update the ticket with a channel change. You can resume using #unbabel after the first message is translated.

What if I only have an Email subscription?

If you only translate emails with Unbabel, and want to reply via email in tickets started as chat conversations, you will see this error:

Unbabel allows you to switch the Unbabel channel by clicking on "Retry using another channel". This will trigger an email translation, which is posted in the comment panel. The Unbabel widget will also update accordingly.

Once the translation is visible and the ticket initialised, simply change the channel in the ticket drop-down list to Email, write your reply and click the Unbabel button.

The outbound translation will be posted and sent as an email once ready.

Note: if you are adding the user's email address to the requester field in order to send the email, you need to update the ticket first, and only then use the Unbabel button. This also holds true for any other ticket field updates, as the Unbabel button doesn't update the ticket properties.

Changing from Email to Chat/Messaging

When the change is occurring from email to chat/messaging, the first translation is not posted as a public reply immediately. This is due to a Zendesk API restriction. The translation is posted as an internal note instead, which can be copied and sent as a chat/messaging public reply. The normal flow resumes after that.