If you sell in several countries, you want every customer to get your WhatsApp messages in their own language. WAX does this for you: it works out each contact's language, then sends the version of your message that matches it.

Every contact in WAX has a Language field. WAX uses this field to choose the right version of your message.

WAX uses the information Shopify sends, in this order:

1. The language the customer used on your store. When a customer starts a checkout or places an order, Shopify tells WAX which language they were browsing in. This is the most reliable source, so it always comes first. If the customer later shops in another language, WAX updates their language.

2. The country of their address. If WAX doesn't know the contact's language yet, it uses the country in their Shopify address. For example, an address in Germany gives German. This never replaces a language that came from a checkout or an order.

3. The country of their phone number. If neither of the above is available, WAX uses the number's country code. For example, +34 gives Spanish.

▎ 💡 Example: Marie lives in Belgium but shops on your store in Dutch. Her address alone would give French, but WAX sees that she ordered in Dutch, so she gets your messages in Dutch.

WAX doesn't receive any information about the language your customers shop in. Instead, it uses the country code of the contact's phone number: a +33 number gives French, a +39 number gives Italian, and so on.

WAX only does this when the contact doesn't have a language yet. It never replaces a language that's already set.

▎ ⚠️ Good to know: a phone number tells you where the number is from, not always which language the contact prefers. For example, an English-speaking customer with a French number will be treated as French-speaking. If you know a contact's language, set it on their contact profile.

A template or message in WAX can have several language versions. When a message goes out, WAX picks the version like this:

1. The exact language. If the contact's language is Brazilian Portuguese and you have a Brazilian Portuguese version, they get that one.

2. The same language in another variant. If there's no exact match, WAX looks for the same base language. A contact in US English will get your English (UK) or English version.

3. Your default version. If no version matches the contact's language, WAX sends the version you set as default.

This works the same way for Shopify and non-Shopify stores.

▎ 💡 Tip: make your default version the language most of your customers speak. Every contact WAX can't match to a language will get that one.

WhatsApp templates have to be approved by Meta before they can be sent.

If you've created a version in a contact's language but it isn't approved yet (for example, it's still in review), WAX won't send the default version instead. This way, a customer doesn't get a message in the wrong language just because their translation is pending. If that version was still a draft, WAX also sends it to Meta for approval.

If you never created a version in the contact's language, they get your default version, as explained above.