Framer’s New Auto Translate: No More Manual Localisation

If you’ve ever designed a website for a global audience, you’ll know that managing different languages is often the least glamorous part of the job.

You’ve spent hours perfecting the layout and choosing the right colours, only to realise you now need to manually update every heading and paragraph across five different locales. It is time-consuming, repetitive, and - let’s be honest - a bit of a headache.

That is why Framer’s latest update, Auto Translate, is such a significant shift for designers. It’s a new addition to the localisation toolkit that aims to take the "manual" out of "manual labour".

In this post, we’ll dive into how this update works, why it matters for your projects, and how you can start using it today to keep your sites perfectly synced across the globe.

The Problem with Manual Updates

Before this update, keeping translations up to date was a bit of a gamble. Imagine you’ve got a page translated into multiple languages, and you decide to add a new sub-line or tweak a heading in the primary version.

If you forget to jump into the localisation view and manually trigger a translation before hitting "Publish," that change simply won't carry over.

The result? A site that looks polished in English but has "broken" or untranslated sections in Japanese or French.

To fix it, you’d have to stop what you’re doing, open the localisation settings, and manually update the content. It’s a friction point that slows down the creative process.

Introducing Auto Translate

Framer’s solution is Auto Translate, a feature designed to keep all your content in sync automatically.

Whether you are working directly on the Canvas or managing a complex database in the CMS, this tool ensures that your edits are reflected across every enabled language instantly.

How to Enable It

To get started, you need to head into your Locale Settings. There, you will find new AI controls that allow you to toggle on Auto Translate.

Once you enable it, Framer will usually prompt you to translate all your existing content right away. This is a vital first step because it ensures that nothing on your current site stays outdated before you start making new changes.

Choosing Your AI Model

One of the most impressive parts of this update is the level of transparency regarding the tech behind it. Framer has included several AI models that performed best during their internal benchmarks.

When you enable Auto Translate, you can:

• Leave it on "Auto": Let Framer pick the best model for the task.

• Select a specific model: Choose the one you prefer based on your own testing or Framer’s provided benchmarks.

Framer has stated they will continue to add more models over time, ensuring the quality of translations only gets better as AI technology evolves.

Real-Time Sync: Canvas and CMS

The real "magic" happens once the feature is live. As soon as you finish typing a new line of text on the Canvas, Framer automatically translates it into all other locales where Auto Translate is enabled.

You can switch between languages and see the results immediately, which means you can publish your site without ever worrying about leaving untranslated "placeholder" text behind.

This automation extends to the CMS as well, which is a massive win for bloggers and businesses.

For example, if you add a new article to your "Blog" collection, you can preview it, switch the locale, and find the entire post already translated. For teams managing dozens of articles, this is a massive time-saver.

Granular Control for Professional Teams

While automation is fantastic, professional design teams often need a mix of automatic speed and manual precision. Framer has accounted for this by adding several improvements to the localisation view and the Canvas.

If you prefer not to have everything on "autopilot," you can use these new manual features:

1. Translate All: In the localisation view, you can now click a single button to update all locales at once, rather than doing them one by one.

2. Specific Locale Updates: You can still choose to update only a subset of your languages if you’re still tweaking certain versions.

3. Layer-Specific Translation: On the Canvas, you can right-click any individual layer and select "Translate Content" to update just that specific element.

4. Page-Level Translation: If you only want to update a single page, you can do so through the page menu, which will then trigger the locale selector.

This hybrid approach means you get the speed of AI without losing the "final say" over your site’s content.

The "Auto Translate" update is more than just a convenience; it’s about removing the technical barriers that stop designers from going global. By integrating high-performing AI models directly into the workflow, Framer is making it possible to build and maintain multi-language sites in a fraction of the time it used to take.

Whether you are a solo designer or part of a larger agency, these tools allow you to focus on what you do best: designing incredible user experiences. The days of worrying about untranslated sublines are officially over.

If you haven't tried it yet, head over to your project settings and give it a go.

Watch the full video update from the Framer YouTube channel: