Building Emails
Sending an email in several languages
Adding language versions to an email, keeping them up to date with the main version, and how Gorilla Dash decides which version each person is sent.
Last updated October 14, 2026
One email can be sent in several languages. The email you build first is the main version. Next to it you can add a language version for each other language you need — French, German, or another region of the same language, such as US English for readers who expect "Center" rather than "Centre". When the email goes out, each person is sent the version in their own language, and anyone no version suits is sent the main version.
A language version can be translated for you from the main version, and you can then change any of its words by hand. Your changes are kept when the version is later brought up to date with the main version.
Adding a language
- Open the email in the email builder. Under the toolbar is a row headed Languages, showing the main version first.
- Select Add language.
- Choose the language from the Language list.
- Choose how the version should start. Translate it from the main version now writes the whole version for you. Start from a copy of the main version and write it myself copies the main version unchanged, for you to rewrite.
- Select Add language. The translation runs in the background and can take a few minutes for a long email. The new version opens in the builder when it is ready; while you wait, the builder is locked so nothing is saved over the translation.
Translating is billed as an AI translation, the same as translating a website page. Each later update only translates the parts of the email that have changed since the last one.
Editing a language version
Select the language in the Languages row to open that version in the builder. Its Subject and Pre Header appear above the builder, because each version has its own. Change the words, swap an image or fix a link exactly as you would in the main version, then select Save. To go back to the main version, select its language at the start of the row.
If you switch to another language with changes you have not saved, you are asked first whether to throw them away.
Keeping versions up to date
The icon on each language shows whether it still matches the main version:
| Icon | What it means |
|---|---|
| A tick | The version is up to date with the main version. |
| A pencil | The version is up to date, and someone has changed its wording by hand. |
| An exclamation mark (amber) | The main version has changed since this version was last updated. |
| An hourglass | The version is being translated. Wait for it to finish before editing it. |
| An exclamation mark (red) | The last translation did not finish, or the version has nothing to send yet. Open it and select Translate again or Update from main version. |
Open a version that is out of date and select Update from main version. Only the parts of the main version that changed are translated again, and the layout follows the main version, so a row you added or moved there appears in the version too. Anything you changed by hand in the version is kept. When a part you changed by hand was also changed in the main version, your wording is kept and the part is listed in a yellow note so you can check it still says the right thing.
Translate again starts the version over: the whole email is translated again from the main version. If you have changed the version by hand, you are asked to confirm first, because those changes are replaced and cannot be brought back.
Both run in the background, so you can leave the email and come back. If a translation does not finish, for example because the translation service is busy, the language shows a red exclamation mark and the message explains what happened. Select the same button again to carry on: Update from main version after an update, or Translate again after a fresh translation or a new language. The parts that were already translated are kept, so only the rest is translated and billed. If someone saves the version while it is being translated, their saved version is kept and the translation is not applied.
Translating automatically
Switch on Translate automatically at the end of the Languages row to have versions updated for you. A few minutes after the main version is saved, every version nobody has changed by hand is brought up to date. A version that has been changed by hand is left for you to update, so your wording is never replaced without you choosing to; it shows the exclamation mark until you do.
The main language
Main language, at the end of the Languages row, is the language the main version is written in. It starts as your organisation's language. Change it if this email is written in another one — for example, an email written in US English by a team in Australia — so that people who read that language are matched to the main version and the translations start from the right language.
How each person's language is chosen
When the email is sent, Gorilla Dash works through these in order and uses the first one that matches a version of the email:
- The person's own Email Language, if it has been set on their contact profile.
- The country of the person's tribe. A tribe is one location, branch or business unit inside your organisation, and its country is set in its tribe details. A person in a tribe in the United States is sent the US English version; one in a tribe in France is sent the French version.
- The person's own country, from their address.
- If none of these matches a version, the main version.
A language matches its own version first and then another version of the same language: a person who reads Canadian French is sent the French version when there is no Canadian French one. A country matches a version made for that country first, and then a version in the language most of the country reads, so a tribe in Austria is sent the German version.
To set a person's language yourself, open their contact profile and, under Contact Information, change Email Language. Leave it on Automatic (from tribe and country) to let their tribe and country decide.
Where language versions are used
- Email campaigns. The recipients are split by language up to an hour before the send, and each group is sent its own version. Add or remove a language before then if you can; a change made after the split, but before the campaign starts sending, makes the split happen again.
- Campaigns pushed to tribes. Each tribe's copy of the email has the same language versions, and is split by language in the same way.
- Marketing automations. An email step sends each person the version in their language.
- Test sends. A test sends whichever version is open in the builder, so you can check each language in an inbox before the campaign goes out.