Translate a Slack Connect channel with clients and partners

Slack Connect puts your team and another company in one channel. When the two sides speak different languages, a translation app can carry the conversation, and only one of you has to install it.

Updated October 11, 2026

Short answer. Install a translation app in your own workspace, invite it to the shared channel, and set the channel's languages. Slack delivers both companies' messages to an app in the channel, so with Kiki every message is translated in the thread for everyone, using your plan, your languages and your glossary. The other company installs nothing and pays nothing. Slack Connect itself needs a paid Slack plan on both sides.

How translation works in a shared channel

A Slack Connect channel is one channel that two or more organizations share. Slack's developer documentation says an app in a shared channel "will receive messages and events from users on external teams", and everyone in the channel can see what the app posts. That's all a translation app needs.

When Kiki is in the channel, it reads each new message, detects the language and posts the translation in the thread. Your client in Berlin writes German, your team in Austin reads English, and everyone can follow everyone else.

Everything runs under the workspace that set Kiki up in the channel. Your partner's messages are translated with your channel languages and your glossary, and they count toward your monthly allowance. Your partner needs no Kiki account and no plan.

Set it up in three steps

Add Kiki to your workspace from the install link. Your partner doesn't need to install anything.
Invite Kiki to the shared channel with /invite @Kiki.
Set the languages. Run /translate in the channel and pick them, for example English and German. Translation starts with the next message.

Your organization stays in control of the setup. According to Slack's Slack Connect guide, only people from the organization that added an app can remove it from a channel. Slash commands such as /translate also work only for the organization that installed the app, so your partner can't change your languages.

What your partner sees and can do

Every translation. Translations post in the thread under each message, visible to everyone in the channel, from both companies.
Not your commands. Slack keeps slash commands and message shortcuts with the organization that installed the app, so /translate and "Translate for me" are for your team. If your partner wants them too, they can add Kiki to their own workspace.
Not your assistant. The Hey Kiki assistant, on the Business plan, answers members of your workspace only. People from other companies get a short private note instead, so your glossary, usage and settings stay private.

Which plans you need

Two kinds of plan matter here.

Slack's plan. Slack Connect requires every organization in a shared channel to be on a paid Slack plan. If a workspace drops to Slack's free version, its Slack Connect channels disconnect.

Kiki's plan. Any Kiki plan works in a shared channel. Kiki Free covers one channel and two languages, with about 1,000 translations a month. Busy client channels usually need Pro, $19 per workspace per month for about 20,000 translations, or Business for about 50,000.

Your partner's messages count like your own. Every translation counts once, so a message translated into two other languages uses two.

Privacy in a shared channel

Kiki only reads channels it's invited to. To translate, message text is sent to AI translation providers and cached for up to 60 days; the privacy policy lists every provider. Because the channel includes another company, let your partner know a translation app is in the channel, the same way you'd mention a note taker on a call.

Slack also asks apps to get confirmation before sharing sensitive internal data with external partners. That's why Kiki's assistant answers only your own members in shared channels.

Common questions

Does the other company need to install a translation app?

No. When one company adds Kiki to a Slack Connect channel, Kiki translates everyone's messages, including the other company's, and posts the translations for the whole channel.

Who pays for translations in a shared channel?

The workspace that set Kiki up in the channel. Messages from the other company are translated under that workspace's plan and count toward its monthly allowance.

Can people from the other company change the translation settings?

No. Slack keeps slash commands and shortcuts with the organization that installed the app, and only that organization can remove the app from the channel.

Does our glossary apply to their messages?

Yes. Kiki translates every message in the channel with the glossary and languages of the workspace that set it up. Glossaries are on Kiki Pro and above.

Do we need a paid Slack plan?

For Slack Connect, yes. Slack requires every organization in a shared channel to be on a paid Slack plan. Kiki itself works on any of its plans, including Free.

Can a shared channel use more than two languages?

Yes, on Kiki Pro and Business, which allow up to four languages per channel. Kiki Free covers two.

Talk to clients in their language, inside Slack

Add Kiki to your workspace and invite it to the shared channel. Free to start.

Add to Slack See pricing, flat per workspace