WPML 4.8 Beta is now available for testing ahead of the upcoming release of WPML 4.8. This version brings a number of new features, with a big rebranding; WPML AI is now PTC.
If you’re currently using WPML on a big, complex website, or developing a new site, we recommend installing WPML 4.8 Beta on a testing site to ensure everything works correctly.
Here are the new features we recommend testing.
WPML AI is now PTC
PTC (Private Translation Cloud) is our proprietary engine that now powers both WPML and our new software translation service. PTC lets you:
Get AI translations customized to your brand and audience
Enjoy better than human translations
Translate to any language
We are so confident in PTC’s quality that we’re backing it with a translation quality guarantee: not happy with PTC’s translations? Get a full refund.
How to test
To try PTC, go to WPML → Settings and make sure PTC is set as your default translation engine. Once set, send some content for translation to see PTC in action.
Translation Context
To get better automatic translations, you can now provide PTC with context about your website, like what it’s about and who it’s for.
How to test
Go to WPML → Settings, enter your context, and send some content for translation. Your translations should now be more accurate.
Exact Translation Costs
When sending content for automatic translation, WPML’s Translation Dashboard will now show you the exact cost in euros.
How to test
Go to WPML → Translation Dashboard, select some content and confirm the translation cost summary appears.
With WPML, you only pay for new words. Retranslating costs extra only for the words you added or changed.
Improved Media Translation
Now, no matter how you add media to your site, all media meta texts are ready to translate in the Advanced Translation Editor. You can translate them yourself or let automatic translation take care of it.
WPML also includes a new feature for storing meta translations more efficiently, keeping your database clean.
How to test
Insert media with meta texts using different methods (Gutenberg, page builder, etc.) to a page and send for translation. Verify your meta texts appear in the editor.
To try out WPML’s second feature, go to WPML → Settings, scroll down to the Media Translation section, and click on the toggle.
How to Install WPML 4.8 Beta
To install WPML 4.8 Beta on your testing website:
Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
Go to Plugins → Add Plugin and click the Commercial tab.
Click the Updates channel dropdown and switch to Beta.
Select WPML 4.8 and click Download at the bottom.
Got Feedback? Share With Us!
Your feedback helps us continue improving WPML and offer a better experience. We’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to leave a comment below and share your experience 🙂
4 Responses to “WPML 4.8 Beta – WPML AI is Now PTC”
Hi,
These are great enhancements, but I’m surprised there’s no mention of language formality selection.
This is a critical feature — we currently use WPML AI and it doesn’t allow choosing formality. As a result, languages like German and Dutch are translated using the formal tone by default, which forces us to go through extensive post-editing to make the content appropriate. That’s far from ideal.
We’ve even gone so far as to test out Crowdin specifically because it lets us control formality — that’s how important this is to us.
Please prioritize this before anything else. It’s a dealbreaker.
WPML 4.8 could actually resolve this issue. One of the new features we’re adding is the option to provide context about your website (see the “Translation Context” section).
By mentioning the formality style in your context, PTC should create translations that match this formality. For example, you could describe your website like this: A SaaS product for managing hotels, presented in an informal tone.
While this should tell PTC the formality angle, remember that it also uses the formality of your original content to determine the correct translation formality. That is – if your content is presented in a formal way, translations will likely use the formal tone.
> if your content is presented in a formal way, translations will likely use the formal tone
Well that’s the core of the issue Nicolette above describes then isn’t it? English “you” does not have the distinction that Dutch (je/jij versus u), German (du versus Sie), Mandarin Chinese (你 versus 您), and many other languages have.
Whilst working with LLMs context is always a separate instruction from formality, so hopefully WPML can soon add that too!
As previously mentioned, PTC uses a number of variables when deciding which formality to use. This process currently happens automatically because PTC understands which formality to use, just like a human.
That being said, if setting formality manually becomes a highly requested feature, we’ll consider adding it in WPML 🙂
Hi,
These are great enhancements, but I’m surprised there’s no mention of language formality selection.
This is a critical feature — we currently use WPML AI and it doesn’t allow choosing formality. As a result, languages like German and Dutch are translated using the formal tone by default, which forces us to go through extensive post-editing to make the content appropriate. That’s far from ideal.
We’ve even gone so far as to test out Crowdin specifically because it lets us control formality — that’s how important this is to us.
Please prioritize this before anything else. It’s a dealbreaker.
Hello,
WPML 4.8 could actually resolve this issue. One of the new features we’re adding is the option to provide context about your website (see the “Translation Context” section).
By mentioning the formality style in your context, PTC should create translations that match this formality. For example, you could describe your website like this: A SaaS product for managing hotels, presented in an informal tone.
While this should tell PTC the formality angle, remember that it also uses the formality of your original content to determine the correct translation formality. That is – if your content is presented in a formal way, translations will likely use the formal tone.
> if your content is presented in a formal way, translations will likely use the formal tone
Well that’s the core of the issue Nicolette above describes then isn’t it? English “you” does not have the distinction that Dutch (je/jij versus u), German (du versus Sie), Mandarin Chinese (你 versus 您), and many other languages have.
Whilst working with LLMs context is always a separate instruction from formality, so hopefully WPML can soon add that too!
Hi Pieter,
Thanks for bringing this up!
As previously mentioned, PTC uses a number of variables when deciding which formality to use. This process currently happens automatically because PTC understands which formality to use, just like a human.
That being said, if setting formality manually becomes a highly requested feature, we’ll consider adding it in WPML 🙂