When the automatic translation isn't quite the wording you need
Every SignSafe QR code translates itself. Scan it with a phone set to Spanish and you get Spanish, scan it with a phone set to Samoan and you get Samoan, and the sign reads it aloud in that language too. That has always been the default, and it stays the default.
But sometimes the automatic version is close and not exact. A property name that should never be translated. A safety instruction your legal team signed off on in a specific language, word for word. A local phrase that a general-purpose translator will render correctly but not naturally. And sometimes the machine voice is fine, but a recording of an actual person is better: a ranger who knows how to say the place names, or a narrator you already paid for.
So we just shipped advanced options: for any single language on any asset, you can supply your own translated text, your own MP3, or both.
Write your own translation
Open Add New Asset, or edit an existing one, and click Show advanced options under the asset content. Pick a language from Language to override, and type your wording into the Translated content box. From then on, anyone whose phone is set to that language sees exactly what you wrote, and hears exactly what you wrote.
If you would rather start from something than from nothing, click Generate translation. It fills the box with the automatic translation for that language so you can edit it instead of writing from scratch. Nothing is stored until you save the asset, so you can generate, read it, decide it was fine all along, and close the modal without changing anything.
Changed your mind later? Clear the box and save. That hands the language back to the automatic translation, and the section tells you that's what will happen before you commit to it.
Upload your own audio
Under the text box is Custom audio, which takes an MP3 up to 10 MB. Upload one and it replaces the generated narration for that language: when a visitor taps play, they hear your file. A professional recording, a staff member reading the notice in their own voice, an announcement you already produced for another channel. If it plays as an MP3, the sign will play it.
Custom audio works the same way in reverse. The status line tells you whether a file is attached or staged, and Remove hands that language back to the generated narration on your next save. Upload a new file instead and it simply replaces the old one.
English is a special case worth knowing: your English wording is already the Asset Content field, so for English the advanced section offers audio only.
Where this helps
- Approved and compliance wording. When a translation has been reviewed by a person, this is how you keep it exactly as reviewed. It pairs naturally with locking a sign to a single language when one approved version is all a sign should ever show.
- Names, brands, and local terms. Trail names, building names, business names, and regional phrasing are precisely what a general translator handles least well, and precisely what a local reader notices.
- A real human voice. Recorded narration carries tone and pronunciation that synthesized speech does not, which matters most for the languages where saying it correctly is part of saying it respectfully.
- Guest-facing detail. Properties like Quail Crossing, which put its house rules behind SignSafe QR codes, can now fine-tune the languages their guests actually arrive speaking, instead of accepting the general translation for all of them.
How to use it
- Open Add New Asset, or edit an existing asset.
- Click Show advanced options.
- Choose the language you want to override.
- Type your translation, click Generate translation to start from the automatic one, and/or upload an MP3.
- Repeat for as many languages as you like, one at a time, then save.
No new QR code, and no reprint. Overrides apply to the code you already have posted, and they load exactly as fast as an automatic translation does, because they're stored in the same place the sign already reads from when it's scanned.
A few things worth knowing
- Multi-panel series are handled panel by panel. Each panel is its own sign with its own content, so each carries its own overrides. Tabs are badged when a panel has an override waiting, so nothing you staged behind a collapsed section gets lost in a long series.
- Editing an asset's content does not wipe your overrides. An uploaded MP3 can't be regenerated, and hand-reviewed wording shouldn't be destroyed by a typo fix, so both are kept. The editor reminds you that they now describe the old wording, so you can update the ones that need it.
- Replacing a panel's image starts that panel over. If you swap the image or import new pages over a panel, any overrides you had staged for it are cleared, since they describe content that no longer exists.
Automatic stays the default
This is an addition, not a replacement. Every asset still translates and narrates itself in dozens of languages the moment you save it, with nothing to configure. Advanced options are there for the specific languages on specific signs where the exact words, or the exact voice, matter more than the automatic one, and you decide which those are, one language at a time.