Live Translate FAQ
Answers to common setup and operating questions about Live Translate.
For what the app is and how to set it up from scratch, see the
Live Translate Overview.
Setup
Do I need to configure a translation provider before my team can use it?
No. If you connect your own provider (AWS Translate or DeepL) at Admin → Integrations, Live Translate uses it. Otherwise it falls back to a platform-managed engine automatically. Speech-to-text runs on the platform’s OpenAI connection, so it must be available for a turn to run; if text-to-speech fails, the turn still arrives as on-screen text.
How do I make Live Translate visible to employees after I enable it?
Enabling the app at Admin → Apps Marketplace makes it visible to admins immediately. For employees and managers to see it, you also need to publish it to users — either globally or by setting up visibility rules for specific groups. Until you do, only admins and people you’ve added as the app’s admins, contributors, or collaborators can open it.
Permissions and access
Who can manage the glossary and view translation analytics?
Only admins and super admins. The glossary and analytics live at Admin → Translation, which requires admin-level access. Employees and managers can use the interpreter and flag translations as wrong, but they cannot add, edit, or delete glossary terms or view the analytics dashboard.
Why can’t some of my employees see Live Translate?
Three things must all be true: the app is enabled at Admin → Apps Marketplace, it is published to users (or the employee has an explicit visibility grant), and the employee’s account is active in the organization. If all three are in place, check whether any visibility rules restrict access to specific groups.
Day-to-day
Does Live Translate store conversations?
No conversation record is kept. Each turn is transcribed, translated, and spoken back in real time, the transcript appears on screen only while the conversation is open, and there is no transcript history to open afterwards.
Two qualifications, both worth knowing if you are answering a compliance question:
- Tapping Wrong? on a turn deliberately saves that phrase and its shown translation to a review queue at Admin → Translation, so an admin can correct the glossary. This is the only durable copy.
- In two devices mode, each turn travels to the other phone over MangoApps’ shared real-time message service, labelled with your organization’s ID, and is deleted within roughly 90 minutes (a cleanup job runs every 30 minutes). Until then it holds the turn’s text and audio. No screen in the product reads it — reaching it needs direct database access — and one device mode never uses it.
How does the “Detect language” option work?
In one-device mode, either side can be set to Detect language instead of a specific language. The app identifies the speaker’s language automatically from their speech across all 15 supported languages. The side set to Detect must speak first, and both sides can’t be set to Detect at once. In two-device (paired) mode, Detect is not available because each person’s selection becomes the other person’s translation target, so both must be set to a specific language.
How do I add glossary terms in bulk?
Go to Admin → Translation, choose the CSV file in the Terminology section, then click Import CSV. The file uses the same columns Export CSV writes, under this header row:
source_language,target_language,source_text,target_text,term_type,case_sensitive,active
term_type is mapping or do_not_translate. The last two columns are optional — leave them out or blank and a term imports as case-insensitive and active; otherwise put true or false. Save the file as CSV UTF-8 with commas between columns.
The file must be under 1 MB and contain no more than 2,000 rows. Duplicate terms — same source language, target language, and source text as an existing entry — are skipped automatically. To see the expected format, export your current glossary first.
What are the industry starter packs?
Three pre-built terminology sets you can adopt with one click at Admin → Translation:
- Warehouse & Manufacturing Safety (English → Spanish) — 13 terms including lockout-tagout, PPE, and muster point
- Retail & Store Operations (English → Spanish) — 9 terms including stockroom, planogram, and shrinkage
- Healthcare & Facilities (English → Spanish) — 7 terms including shift handoff, charting, and isolation room
Adopting a pack clones its terms into your glossary. You can edit or remove them freely afterward. A pack shows as already adopted once all of its terms exist in your glossary.
How do I review flagged translations?
Go to Admin → Translation. The Flagged translations section shows pending flags, oldest first (up to 50 displayed; the badge shows the true total). For each flag you can type the word that came out wrong into the empty Term box (the flagged sentence is shown above it as Original:), enter what it should translate to, and click Add term — which creates a glossary mapping and closes the flag in one step — or click Dismiss to close it without a term. If the card says a term can’t fix it — the language wasn’t recognised, or both sides were the same language — dismiss it instead. Dismissing doesn’t delete the flag: its phrase still counts in the most-flagged phrases on the Analytics page. You receive an in-app notification when flags arrive (at most once per 6 hours) and an email digest (at most once per 24 hours).
Can glossary terms be case-sensitive?
Yes. Each term has a Case-sensitive option you can toggle when creating or editing it. When enabled, “PPE” matches only “PPE”, not “ppe” or “Ppe”. The default is case-insensitive matching.
When something looks wrong
“The app said it couldn’t make out any speech”
The app detected no speech in the recording. Common causes: a tap instead of a hold (the minimum hold is about 350 milliseconds), speaking too far from the microphone, or the microphone being muted at the OS level. In hands-free mode, an utterance shorter than 350 milliseconds is also discarded as a non-speech sound.
“Microphone access is blocked”
The browser refused Live Translate the microphone, usually because microphone permission is turned off for your MangoApps site. Allow the microphone in the browser’s site settings — on a phone, also check that the browser or app is allowed to use the microphone in the phone’s settings — then try again. “No microphone was found on this device.” and “The microphone is being used by another app — close it and try again.” are the other two microphone messages; each says what to fix.
“This browser can’t use the microphone here. Open the page over https, or try another browser.” is different: the page isn’t on a secure (https) connection, or the browser or in-app view can’t record audio. Open the site over https, or switch browsers.
“Couldn’t play automatically — tap Play again on the last message.”
The browser blocked the translation from playing on its own. The translation is still on screen; tap Play again on that turn to hear it. Play again stays available on the newest 10 turns.
“Translation didn’t go through — please try again.”
Speech recognition or the translation provider failed on that turn, most often a temporary provider problem. Try the turn again. If it keeps happening, tell your admin.
“Taking too long — try again.”
On one device, a turn that hasn’t come back within 60 seconds is abandoned. Try again, keeping the turn short.
“You’ve reached the hourly limit for this feature”
Each person can make 200 interpreter attempts an hour, shared between one-device and two-device mode. Every attempt that reaches the server counts — including one where no speech was heard — and the count resets at the top of each hour, UTC. Starting a two-device session has its own limit of 60 an hour. Both limits are per person, not per device or per session.
“The translation used the wrong word for our equipment”
The translation engine may not know your company’s vocabulary. Add the correct term at Admin → Translation: create a Mapping with the source word and its correct translation, or a Do not translate rule for terms like brand names or product codes that should pass through untouched. The glossary applies on the very next turn with no restart or delay.
“My partner can’t join with the session code”
A paired session code is 6 characters (letters and numbers) and expires after 2 hours. Only the first person to enter the code can claim the second seat — a third person is rejected even with the correct code. The joiner must also belong to the same organization, have access to Live Translate there, and join from that organization’s own site. After 20 wrong codes in 10 minutes, that person can’t join any session for up to 10 minutes. If joining still fails, have the host start a new session and share the fresh code.
“The other person left.”
The full message reads “The other person left. If they don’t come back, leave and start a new session.” The other phone left the conversation — they pressed Leave, closed or navigated away from the page, lost their connection, or lost access to Live Translate. If hands-free was on, it switches off. The session stays open for the rest of its 2 hours, and only that same person can rejoin it with the same code — as long as they still have access. Otherwise, start a new session.
“The session ended or expired. Start or join a new one.”
Your turn was sent to a session that no longer accepts it: sessions last 2 hours from when they were started, and a session also refuses someone who can no longer take part in it. Start a new session, or join a fresh code.
“Live Translate isn’t available right now — the speech service isn’t set up on this platform.”
This notice appears only when the platform’s OpenAI connection — which runs speech-to-text and text-to-speech for every turn — isn’t set up, and the app’s buttons are disabled while it shows. Waiting won’t clear it; contact MangoApps support. An outage looks different: there is no notice, and turns say “Translation didn’t go through — please try again.”
“Live Translate isn’t available for your account.”
You see this when you try a turn or start a session and you aren’t in Live Translate’s audience any more — for example it was made admin-only, or your group lost access — or your membership in this organization was deactivated. If you’re outside the audience, reopening the page shows “You don’t have access to Live Translate yet. Ask your administrator to make it available to you.” An admin can publish Live Translate to you or your group, or reactivate your membership.
“I can’t see the Company terminology button”
The Company terminology button appears only for admins and super admins. It opens Admin → Translation (the page titled “Translation”), where the glossary lives in the Terminology section. Employees and managers see the interpreter but not the button — this is by design, since only admins can manage terminology.
Licensing and limits
Does Live Translate require a license?
No. Live Translate is pay-as-you-go with no license to purchase. An admin enables it at Admin → Apps Marketplace, and each turn’s usage — speech-to-text, translation, and text-to-speech — meters through the organization’s AI/Voice credit pool.
What are the limits I should know about?
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Supported languages | 15, plus Detect in one-device mode |
| Turns per user per hour | 200 |
| Paired-session creates per user per hour | 60 |
| Maximum audio upload per turn | 2 MB |
| Maximum hands-free utterance | 15 seconds |
| Paired session expiry | 2 hours |
| Participants per paired session | 2 (host + one joiner) |
| Glossary CSV import file size | 1 MB |
| Glossary CSV import rows | 2,000 |
More help
- Live Translate Overview
- Ask AI — the assistant answers Live Translate questions from these articles.