TextLantern

Getting started

Get started with TextLantern

Choose the path for you: personal translation or setting up a server.

Updated

Get access

TextLantern is in private beta. Contact support@textlantern.com to ask about access. Send the email from your mail app, then wait for support to confirm access and provide the steps available for your account or server. Opening the email link does not send a request or install TextLantern.

Use personal translation

Follow the access instructions to add TextLantern to your own Discord account. This is separate from adding the bot to a server. Then use the TextLantern action in a message’s menu to read a private translation, or /t to prepare a reply in another language.

To check the personal installation, look for TextLantern in Discord’s User Settings → Authorized Apps. If it only appears in a server’s member list, check that you completed the account installation too.

Follow the personal translation guide for both paths. You do not need to change server-wide settings to follow that guide.

For a server you manage

  1. Use the right account. The person configuring TextLantern needs Discord’s Manage Server permission.
  2. Complete authorization. Follow the access instructions from support. Review the permissions Discord shows before adding the bot.
  3. Check the channel permissions. The bot must be able to read and reply in the channel you want to translate. It does not need Administrator. See the permission checklist.
  4. Set up a channel. Follow channel translation to choose languages, set the reply location, and send a test message.

Check your first translation

Personal: translate one message and check that you can read the result in your chosen language. For a reply you compose, review and copy the translation before sending it yourself.

Server: send a short message in one main language, then another in the other language. Check both the language and the reply location. Saving settings or seeing the bot in the member list does not, by itself, confirm that translation works.

If you cannot continue

If the message action is missing or a translation does not appear, start with translation troubleshooting.