Break every language barrier with Auto-translations in UrbanOS

A language barrier is one of the biggest causes of miscommunication between urban management teams and their members. An important announcement about street works gets missed, or an entrepreneur misses a registration deadline because the message wasn't fully understood. Then the ripple effect starts: the misunderstanding turns into a complaint, and someone has to take responsibility for it. More often than not that responsibility lands with you as the area manager, and the buy-in you work so hard for takes another hit.

This is exactly what Auto-translations solves. Everything you communicate through UrbanOS arrives in each member's own language, and it works in both directions too, so an entrepreneur can reply in their language while you read it in yours.

Why multilingual communication matters

City centres and business parks are international by default. The entrepreneurs and employees behind the local businesses increasingly come from all over the world, and the local language is often not their first. UrbanOS already supports 23 languages in the interface, but until now the messages themselves stayed in the language they were written in.

An announcement about street works or a change to an event is only useful if every member can actually understand it. Until now, the choice was to write the same message several times over or to post it once and accept that part of your area won't fully understand it. That gap shows up in daily operations. Messages get ignored because members are unsure what they mean, and management teams end up answering the same questions from entrepreneurs who only partially understood the original. Participation suffers exactly where you are trying to build it.

How Auto-translations works

Auto-translations builds translation into how UrbanOS delivers content, rather than asking members to translate on demand. An announcement posted in Dutch arrives in English for the international store manager and in French for the member who prefers French. The translation is there on first load, already in the notification, before the app is even opened. Replies are translated the same way, so a whole conversation can run in two languages at once.

Every translated item is clearly labelled, with a toggle to view the original. Nobody has to guess whether they're reading a translation, and the source text is always one tap away.

Translation quality you can rely on

Translations are designed to sound natural in everyday communication, not stiff or robotic. That matters for the kinds of messages urban teams send most: quick announcements, event invitations, practical updates and casual replies. Members can understand the message as it was meant, while your team can communicate with more confidence.

Translations are also generated once and stored, so they load instantly for everyone after that.

Get Auto-translations for your area

Auto-translations helps every member receive important updates in the language they understand best, while your team keeps communicating from one place. Announcements are easier to understand, questions are easier to answer and every member can stay involved in the language they prefer.

There is a knock-on effect for app adoption too. Members are far more likely to keep using a platform when everything in it reads naturally to them, and an app that speaks their language quickly becomes part of their routine. Interface languages already lowered that barrier, and with Auto-translations the content itself now does the same, so new members find their way around faster and stay active longer.

To enable Auto-translations for your area, get in touch with your contact at City Connect and sign the AI addendum. Once that is in place, we can activate Auto-translations for your community.