Instant Translation for Connectors & Plugins

Instant Translation lets you generate a quick translation using the MT engine or LLM provider of your choice, without creating a translation job or moving content through a workflow. It is ideal when MT or LLM-generated translations without human review are sufficient. It is less suitable for highly creative or high-visibility content, as there is no human editing or review.

This article explains how Instant Translation works across Smartling connectors and plugins. The translation provider used for Instant Translation is configured in the AI Hub’s Instant MT settings. While the way you request an instant translation varies by integration (see Step 2), the overall configuration and translation process is the same.

How it works

With Instant Translation, content is not added to a Smartling job and does not go through a translation workflow. No strings are ingested, and the translations are not stored in your translation memory. Instead, translations are completed using your preferred MT or LLM Profile and delivered directly back to your connected system near-instantly.

Instant Translation requests count towards your account's AI Hub usage.

Step 1: Configure your preferred Profile in Smartling

Instant translations are completed using the MT or LLM Profile you select on the relevant connector tab in the AI Hub's Instant MT settings (requires Account Owner or Project Manager user role). You can also customize the translation output by configuring language-specific Profiles and, optionally, enabling glossary term insertion.

Example:

For complete setup instructions, see Instant MT Settings.

Note that some connectors and plugins use the MT API tab instead of having their own dedicated tab. Whatever Profile you select on the MT API tab is used for all connectors and plugins that share this tab, as well as translation requests made via Smartling's API or MCP server. Any change made there affects all of these integrations.

Step 2: Request content for translation

How you request an instant translation depends on the type of integration.

Non-hosted connectors and plugins: request from within your connected platform

For these integrations, Instant Translation is requested from within your connected platform. For request steps, see the documentation for your integration:

Hosted connectors: request in Smartling

For hosted connectors, requesting an instant translation follows the same submission flow as a standard translation request. The only difference is that you select Request Instant Translation instead of adding the content to a new or existing job.

In your connector project, select the assets you want to translate.
In the Actions menu, select Request Instant Translation.
In the Request Instant Translation dialog, confirm the assets to translate, enter an optional Request Name, and select the Target Locales.
Click Start Translation.

Instant Translation is supported for the following hosted connectors:

Iterable Connector

Step 3: Receive translations

For hosted connectors: after you click Start Translation, the dialog closes. Click View Instant Requests from the connector tab to open the Instant Translation Requests modal, where you can filter requests, check their status, and cancel requests. As translations are completed, they are automatically delivered back to your connected system in near-real time.

Example:

For non-hosted connectors and plugins: translations are delivered within your connected platform, the same as when translations are completed using the typical job and workflow flow. See the documentation for your specific connector or plugin for details.

Looking for instant MT in other areas of Smartling (the GDN, Smartling Translate, the MT API directly, or as suggestions in the CAT Tool)? See Instant MT Settings.

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