Allow participants to select their survey language
Display a dropdown menu in your survey that allows participants to set their responding language of choice. This is useful if your survey supports multiple languages, or you have participants across multiple communities that use different locales.
To enable the language dropdown menu, the Group Code value must first be set across affiliated communities. The common Group Code value determines the list of languages in the dropdown menu. For more information, see View or edit community settings.
- This setting is available in modern surveys and unavailable in classic surveys.
- If your survey only contains an End Survey action, the survey page may not load properly when participants try to switch languages. Hiding the survey language menu is recommended in this case.
-
Click
Save.
A language dropdown menu will appear at the top of the first page when participants load the survey.
Survey language selection FAQs
Which languages are available?
The languages available in the dropdown menu are determined as follows:
|
Available languages = (Language survey was authored in originally) + (Survey translations) |
- Language survey was authored in originally: This is the default language used to build the survey.
- Survey translations: These are the survey translations managed through the Translations workspace.
What's the default language participants see?
The default language is determined by the participant's browser locale.
What happens if the participant's browser locale is not among the list of available languages?
The survey defaults to the language you select when you create the invitation or activity link.
Which survey URL, community theme, support email, and footer links will appear for participants?
The survey URL, community theme, support email, and footer links come from one of the communities with the same Group Code value. The Group Code value is used to identify affiliated communities. In cases where there are duplicate locales, the Group Code value determines which community theme to use. For more information about the Group Code value, see View or edit community settings.
Example
The company Marin + Rose has communities in English, French, Italian, and Spanish. Its sister company MR2 has communities in English and French. The Group Code values MarinRose and MR2 are used to identify Marin + Rose communities and MR2 communities, respectively.
| Community | Group Code value | Locale |
|---|---|---|
| Marin + Rose (English) | MarinRose | en-US |
| Marin + Rose (French) | MarinRose | fr-FR |
| Marin + Rose (Italian) | MarinRose | it-IT |
| Marin + Rose (Spanish) | MarinRose | es-US |
| MR2 (English) | MR2 | en-US |
| MR2 (French) | MR2 | fr-FR |
A survey is distributed to the Marin + Rose (English) community and translated into French. When a participant whose browser locale is set to French opens the survey:
- The survey initially loads in French.
- English and French appear in the language dropdown menu.
- The theme and survey settings from the Marin + Rose (French) community appear, as opposed to the theme and survey settings from MR2 (French). This is because the Marin + Rose (English) and Marin + Rose (French) communities have the same Group Code value, MarinRose.
What happens to values passed in through survey URLs?
The parameters remain the same even if the survey language changes.
Do I need to create a translation and distribution for each locale?
Yes, you still need to enter a translation and create a distribution for each locale.
What happens if participants stop and then resume the survey?
Participants see the same locale they used previously when they resume the survey.
Can participants change their language selection halfway through the survey?
No, a complete survey response needs to be completed in one locale. Multiple locales are not supported at this point in time and may break text analysis and survey logic conditions. Participants can only change the locale on the first page of the survey.
What happens to existing surveys?
This feature is available starting October 2022. There are no changes to existing surveys. For multi-language surveys authored prior to this date, survey authors must update the survey properties to show the language dropdown menu.
What happens to responses in reporting?
There are no changes to reporting behavior. Data from all locales is available in one standard report; you can use respondent locale to filter data. For text analysis, you will need to create a separate text analysis report for each locale.
Does language selection impact community recruitment?
No, switching languages does not affect community recruitment. If a participant was invited to join an English community and completes the recruitment survey in French, upon completion the participant still belongs to the English community.