Running a conversation
Written for the person at the desk.
Before you start
Three questions, every time.
Is this a straightforward conversation?
If yes, this is the tool for it. If you are unsure, stop and get a qualified interpreter. That applies again at any point in the conversation where uncertainty arises.
Is it ever in scope?
Some conversations never are: a statutory assessment, legal advice, clinical consent, a formal safeguarding interview, or anything where a misunderstanding would be hard to reverse. The safeguards page is the full list, and it is deliberately conservative.
Which screen?
The shared screen if you are sitting together. Their own device if the subject is sensitive, or if they would read more freely with the screen in their own hands.
Setting the context
Set the two languages and record the context of the conversation before the first turn.
Everything recorded here is in scope for every translation that follows, which is a key difference between this and a phone app.
During the conversation
Each person writes in their own language
Neither of you needs to simplify for the machine.
Watch the note beside each turn
It tells you what the check on that translation found.
Let the tool ask the other person a question
It does that when the source could mean two different things, and the question is specific rather than "please rephrase". Answering it is faster than unpicking a wrong translation three turns later.
Revisions are shown
If a translation was revised, you will see that it was. Both versions stay in the record automatically.
Check understanding
Clarifying what the person has understood remains your responsibility.
When to stop
The test is the same in the middle of a conversation as it was at the start: if you are not sure, stop and get a qualified interpreter. Uncertainty is the trigger, and it does not need to be justified.
In practice that means stopping when something is not landing, when the person seems confused by replies, when the subject moves into one of the categories on the safeguards page, or when you simply do not feel confident. Stopping is a normal outcome and reflects on neither the tool nor you.
The conversations this is built for are the straightforward ones: the twenty minutes at a front door that would otherwise be postponed for want of a shared language. Clearing those here is what leaves interpreter time available for the conversations that genuinely need it.
Tell the person
Clients should know a machine translation tool is being used, and that they can ask for an interpreter instead.
Afterwards
A finished conversation can be reopened as a read-only record. Your notes are the record of what happened.
Team set-up
Group settings, shared templates, case management, domain knowledge and output styles are configured once, at organisation level. What you get covers those, and getting started covers the order to do them in.
This guide describes the current working product. Speech in and out is being built. Any questions, log a ticket.