The Language override attribute can be used to enforce a customer's Messenger and automation language. Once the attribute is set, the customer will always view the Messenger and receive automation content (Fin AI Agent and Workflows) in that language. Intercom determines the display language based on a priority order: Language Override, Detected Language, Browser Language, and Workspace's default language. The Language Override attribute takes precedence, overriding all other attributes when explicitly set.
Language Override: Explicitly set by the user or workflow.
Detected Language: Based on analyzing customer message text (requires ~10+ characters for detection). Something to note is that clicking buttons or similar actions won’t trigger detection.
Browser Language: Defaults to the browser’s "preferred language." If incorrect for some users, advise them to prioritize language settings within their browser.
Workspace Default Language: The fallback for all communication when no other priority matches.
These rules ensure the best possible customization of messaging language, minimizing misinterpretations.
You can set this user attribute in three different ways.
1. Via Workflows
Before using this feature, ensure you have enabled multilingual options by navigating to Settings > Workflow Configurations.
To add a language override:
Click to add a step in any workflow.
Select Set language override.
Choose the specific language you want to enforce for the user.
When a workflow sets a user’s language override attribute, a conversation event will be displayed in the inbox:
You can also set the customer’s language override from within the Apply rules step in Workflows:
2. Directly from the contact page
You can also update a customer’s Language override attribute directly from the contact's profile in your workspace.
Simply navigate to their profile in Contacts, and find the "Language override" attribute in the top left menu.
You can then click on the current value for language override, which will open a menu with the languages from your Messenger’s settings.
Simply select the desired language, and it will automatically get updated. If you want to remove the language override for a contact, click Clear. This will allow automatic language detection to run for the customer instead.
3. Via a JavaScript snippet
You can also set a customer’s language override directly from the JavaScript code snippet that connects your app with Intercom. You can do this by updating it as shown below:
var intercomSettings = {
app_id: '[YOUR WORKSPACE ID]',
...,
language_override: 'fr' // Replace with preferred language of user
};
The value of the language_override will only be used if it conforms to an ISO 639-1 two-letter code such as 'en' for English or 'fr' for French. You’ll need to use a four-letter code for Chinese like 'zh-CN'. For Norwegian, Intercom uses Norwegian Bokmål so the ISO code you should use for Norwegian is ‘nb’, not ‘no’.
Important: API limitations
Note: The language_override field is readable via the Contacts endpoint of the REST API, but it is not writable. You cannot set or update a customer’s language override using the REST API. You must use Workflows, the Contact page, or the JavaScript snippet.
Good to know:
A customer’s language override will only apply if the language is set in your Messenger’s settings. If not, the customer will see content in their browser’s locale (or if not available, in your workspace’s default language).
If issues occur due to browser language settings, advise customers to reorder their "preferred language" settings in their browser. Once adjusted, have them refresh their Intercom Messenger session to apply the changes.
The Messenger’s language won’t get updated in "real time" when a contact’s language override attribute is updated, it will get updated the next time the customer reloads the Messenger.
⚠️ We recommend you only set a language override when you have very high confidence that the customer can speak that language, as it will always override the language for that contact.
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