Internationalize your widget

The widget and portal support 11 languages. Learn how the language is detected, how to set it with the locale option, and how to translate your own Messenger text.

The widget and portal detect each visitor's language and show all interface text (buttons, labels, placeholders) in it. This article lists the supported languages, explains how the language is chosen, and shows how to set it yourself.

Supported languages

Code	Language	Direction
`en`	English	Left to right (default)
`de`	German	Left to right
`fr`	French	Left to right
`es`	Spanish	Left to right
`ar`	Arabic	Right to left
`ru`	Russian	Left to right
`pt-br`	Portuguese (Brazil)	Left to right
`zh-cn`	Chinese, Simplified	Left to right
`zh-tw`	Chinese, Traditional	Left to right
`nl`	Dutch	Left to right
`pl`	Polish	Left to right

Codes are not case-sensitive, so the widget's locale option also accepts pt-BR, zh-CN, and zh-TW.

How the language is chosen

The widget and portal pick a language in this order:

URL parameter: ?locale=fr overrides everything else.
Widget SDK option: the locale you pass to init (see below).
Browser language: the browser's Accept-Language header.
English: the fallback when nothing matches.

Region subtags are dropped automatically, so a browser sending fr-FR gets fr.

Note: Chinese is matched by script rather than region: tags that resolve to Traditional script (zh-TW, zh-HK, zh-Hant) get zh-tw, and everything else under zh gets zh-cn.

Pass locale when you initialize the widget:

Quackback("init", {
  locale: "de",
});

The widget renders in German right away.

Tip: If your app lets users choose a language, pass their choice here so the widget matches the rest of your product, whatever the browser reports.

Translate your own Messenger text

Interface text is translated for you. Text you write yourself is not. To show your Messenger welcome and offline messages in other languages, add them under Translations in Settings > Support > Channels > Messenger.

Portal language

The portal reads the browser's language and switches automatically. There is no admin setting to configure. Visitors on Arabic get a right-to-left layout.

Test a right-to-left layout

Add ?rtl=1 to a portal URL to force right-to-left rendering:

https://feedback.example.com/?rtl=1

This is a testing tool only. In normal use, right-to-left layout turns on automatically for Arabic. Do not use it in links you share with users.