How to change the Copilot language in Windows 11

If you've reached this point, it's because you want to enable Copilot to speak your language in Windows 11 , and perhaps you've encountered unsupported language messages or responses in a language other than what you expected. The key is understanding that there are several versions of Copilot and several language levels : the Windows app version, the Microsoft 365 version, and the Copilot Studio version for creating agents.

Before making any changes, it's important to understand what can and can't be changed. The Copilot app interface on Windows typically follows the system language , Copilot's responses depend on the languages ​​the service supports for requests, and in development environments like Copilot Studio, agents have a primary language with their own rules and compatibility lists for each function.

What you need to know about Copilot's language in Windows 11

Copilot in Windows 11 is an app that comes pre-installed on new computers or you can install it . Signing in with your Microsoft account unlocks chat history, image creation , longer conversations, and voice interaction. If you don't see it, search for the app in the Start menu or install it using the official guide.

You can open Copilot anytime with the shortcut Alt + Spacebar. This shortcut displays a quick view for typing or dictating , and you can enable or disable it in the app's settings, under Account, using the toggle switch for opening with Alt + Spacebar.

The push-to-talk feature lets you speak by holding the shortcut for a few seconds until you see the microphone icon on the screen. To end the call, press Esc or close the microphone icon ; if you remain silent for a few seconds, the call will automatically end. In settings, you can choose whether you simply press the button or prefer to hold it down to continue speaking.

Another useful feature is device context. Copilot can answer questions about your specific Windows version , such as how to pair Bluetooth headphones, tailoring the response to your system edition.

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Change the Copilot language in Windows 11

When we talk about changing the language, there are three scenarios: the Copilot interface, the language you type and receive responses in, and voice. The app's interface usually inherits the Windows language , while requests and responses depend on the languages ​​supported by the Copilot service at that time.

To display the Copilot interface and app menus in a different language, adjust your Windows settings. Go to Settings > Time & Language > Language & Region , add your desired language, set it as the display language, and sign out to apply the changes. When you sign back in, Copilot will adopt the new interface language if it's available for the app.

If you want Copilot to understand or respond in a specific language, write your messages in that language. Copilot will respond in the same language as long as it's supported for requests . If the language isn't supported for requests and responses, you'll see a message asking you to rephrase the request using a supported language.

In voice mode, the Windows app lets you hold down Alt and press the spacebar to dictate. The dictation and text-to-speech experience depends on the supported voice languages ; below you'll find a detailed list by feature to see if it's available.

If you receive an "unsupported language" message in Microsoft 365 Copilot , it's not a problem with your computer. It means the service doesn't process that specific language, even if the Teams or Office interface is translated . The solution is to use one of the supported languages ​​for requests and responses; Microsoft will add more languages ​​over time.

Supported languages ​​and support levels in Copilot Studio and related services

In the Copilot Studio authoring section, language support is organized by features and phases. General availability is the most robust level, followed by preview, and finally no support . Below, you'll see which languages ​​are available for each area.

Copilot Studio Creation Canvas

The agent creator sees the interface in the browser's language. Supported languages ​​for the authoring canvas :

• Simplified Chinese zh-CN
• Traditional Chinese zh-TW
• Czech cs-CZ
• Danish da-DK
• Dutch nl-NL
• English United States en-US
• Finnish fi-FI
• French France fr-FR
• German de-DE
• Greek el-GR
• Hindi hi-IN
• Indonesian id-ID
• Italian it-IT
• Japanese ja-JP
• Korean ko-KR
• Norwegian Bokmal nb-NO
• Polish pl-PL
• Portuguese Brazil pt-BR
• Russian ru-RU
• Spanish Spain es-ES
• Swedish sv-SE
• Thai th-TH
• Turkish tr-TR

Conversational authoring experience

The "Describe" tab is available if your browser is in one of these languages; otherwise, you'll see a more discreet setup experience. Supported languages :

• Simplified Chinese zh-CN
• Traditional Chinese zh-TW
• Czech cs-CZ
• Danish da-DK
• Dutch nl-NL
• English
• Finnish fi-FI
• French
• German de-DE
• Greek el-GR
• Hindi hi-IN
• Indonesian id-ID
• Italian it-IT
• Japanese ja-JP
• Korean ko-KR
• Norwegian Bokmal nb-NO
• Polish pl-PL
• Portuguese Brazil pt-BR
• Spanish
• Russian ru-RU
• Swedish sv-SE
• Thai th-TH
• Turkish tr-TR

Event triggers

They allow you to create autonomous agents that react to events without direct user input. Available languages :

• English United States en-US

Generative responses

They are used to allow the agent to automatically draft responses. Supported languages :

• Arab Saudi Arabia ar-SA
• Simplified Chinese zh-CN
• Traditional Chinese zh-TW
• Czech cs-CZ
• Danish da-DK
• Dutch nl-NL
• English Australia en-AU
• English United Kingdom en-GB
• English United States en-US
• Finnish fi-FI
• French Canada fr-CA
• French France fr-FR
• German de-DE
• Greek el-GR
• Hebrew he-IL
• Hindi hi-IN
• Indonesian id-ID
• Italian it-IT
• Japanese ja-JP
• Korean ko-KR
• Norwegian Bokmal nb-NO
• Polish pl-PL
• Portuguese Brazil pt-BR
• Russian ru-RU
• Spanish Spain es-ES
• Spanish United States es-US
• Swedish sv-SE
• Thai th-TH
• Turkish tr-TR

Generative orchestration

Choose the best combination of topics, actions, and fonts during the conversation. Supported languages :

• Arab Saudi Arabia ar-SA
• Simplified Chinese zh-CN
• Traditional Chinese zh-TW
• Czech cs-CZ
• Danish da-DK
• Dutch nl-NL
• English Australia en-AU
• English United Kingdom en-GB
• English United States en-US
• Finnish fi-FI
• French Canada fr-CA
• French France fr-FR
• German de-DE
• Greek el-GR
• Hebrew he-IL
• Hindi hi-IN
• Indonesian id-ID
• Italian it-IT
• Japanese ja-JP
• Korean ko-KR
• Norwegian Bokmal nb-NO
• Polish pl-PL
• Portuguese Brazil pt-BR
• Russian ru-RU
• Spanish Spain es-ES
• Spanish United States es-US
• Swedish sv-SE
• Thai th-TH
• Turkish tr-TR

User language

This is the language in which a person can write to the agent to ask questions. Supported languages :

• Arab Saudi Arabia ar-SA
• Simplified Chinese zh-CN
• Traditional Chinese zh-TW
• Czech cs-CZ
• Danish da-DK
• Dutch nl-NL
• English Australia en-AU
• English United Kingdom en-GB
• English United States en-US
• Finnish fi-FI
• French Canada fr-CA
• French France fr-FR
• German de-DE
• Greek el-GR
• Hebrew he-IL
• Hindi hi-IN
• Indonesian id-ID
• Italian it-IT
• Japanese ja-JP
• Korean ko-KR
• Norwegian Bokmal nb-NO
• Polish pl-PL
• Portuguese Brazil pt-BR
• Russian ru-RU
• Spanish Spain es-ES
• Spanish United States es-US
• Swedish sv-SE
• Thai th-TH
• Turkish tr-TR

Voice support

Agents with interactive voice responses. Supported languages :

• Arab Saudi Arabia ar-SA
• Simplified Chinese zh-CN
• Traditional Chinese zh-TW
• Czech cs-CZ
• Danish da-DK
• Dutch nl-NL
• English Australia en-AU
• English United Kingdom en-GB
• English United States en-US
• Finnish fi-FI
• French Canada fr-CA
• French France fr-FR
• German de-DE
• Greek el-GR
• Hindi hi-IN
• Indonesian id-ID
• Italian it-IT
• Japanese ja-JP
• Korean ko-KR
• Norwegian Bokmal nb-NO
• Polish pl-PL
• Portuguese Brazil pt-BR
• Russian ru-RU
• Spanish Spain es-ES
• Spanish United States es-US
• Swedish sv-SE
• Thai th-TH
• Turkish tr-TR

Microsoft 365 Copilot and unsupported language warnings

You may see an error message indicating that a language is not supported when using Microsoft 365 Copilot. This means that Copilot is not currently processing that specific language for requests and responses , even if the Teams interface or other apps are translated into your preferred language.

What to do in that case is simple. Write the request in a language that is supported according to the service's lists and try again. Microsoft plans to expand the range of supported languages ​​and will update its documentation when new ones are added.

Copilot Studio: Create multilingual agents and switch languages

If you work with Copilot Studio, you can create agents that speak multiple languages ​​and dynamically switch between them depending on the user. When creating an agent, you define a primary language that cannot be changed later , but you can modify the region of the primary language if multiple regions are available for that language.

After creating the agent, the tool already includes content in the target language, including system and custom themes on the themes page. From there, you can add trigger phrases and messages in that language and test its behavior in the test panel to see how it understands user input and responds.

Add secondary languages ​​to an agent

A multilingual agent can detect the user's browser language and respond accordingly, or follow the user's chosen preference. To add secondary languages, go to the agent settings, open the languages ​​section, and use the "Add languages" option.

In the corresponding panel, select the languages ​​to add and click Add. Then review the list and close the settings . From that moment on, you are responsible for translating the content of the themes you create in those secondary languages, except for messages generated by generative orchestration, which are translated automatically.

Manage content localization

In Copilot Studio, all editing is done in the agent's primary language. To localize content into other languages, download the localization file in JSON or ResX format , translate it, and upload it again.

Recommended steps for localization: Go to settings and languages, select upload next to the secondary language, choose JSON or ResX to download, translate the strings, and re-upload the file using browse. When you close the panel, the translations will be saved , and you can view them in the editing environment by changing the language in the testing panel.

If you then change strings in the primary language, you'll have to repeat the process for the secondary languages. Incremental changes don't translate automatically , so download the JSON or ResX file from the secondary language, locate the new content, and re-upload it. When you compare, you'll see that the new content still appears in the primary language, while the already translated content remains in the secondary language because it retains the same identifier.

Test an agent in other languages

Open the test panel and, from the panel's "More" menu, choose the secondary language you want to test. The panel will reload with that language, and the canvas will display the translated content . Then, write a message in that language to validate the real-world experience.

You can also configure the browser language in a secondary agent configuration and access the pre-compiled demo site. The site will open in the chosen language, and the agent will interact with translated strings , replicating the experience of the published environment.

Have an agent switch languages ​​during a conversation

You might want the agent to change language mid-flow, for example, after a specific question. The best practice is to adjust the language after a question node , ensuring that messages up to the next question remain consistent.

To force the change, simply set the User.Language system variable to one of the agent's secondary languages. When you do this, the agent will immediately switch to that language and continue to do so until the next setting or until the logic dictates otherwise.

Dynamic language switching with automatic detection

You can also configure a theme that detects the language of each incoming message and adapts the response in real time. The idea is to use a theme triggered by a received message to intercept everything that arrives, add a custom request that determines the language, and, with a condition, adjust the user's language variable.

A typical example for switching between Dutch and English would be this. Create a theme and replace the trigger with "a message is received" , add a new tool request called "detect language" with an instruction of the type "determine the language in which this message is written", add content of type text called "message" and change the model output to JSON to receive a literal with the detected language.

Next, in the request node, map the system variable Activity.Text as input and create a variable called DetectedLanguage as output. Then add a condition based on DetectedLanguage.structuredOutput.language and create branches for each language you want to handle, adding a node to each branch to set the variable value and setting User.Language to the corresponding language.

Troubleshoot multilingual agents

If the user's browser is in a language that the agent doesn't have configured, the expected behavior is for the agent to fall back to its primary language. Remember that the primary language cannot be changed after creation ; only the region can be changed if multiple options are available.

When you add messages in the primary language but don't upload the translations, the agent will display those changes untranslated in the primary language. Keep translations up to date after each change to avoid inconsistencies between languages.

When publishing a multilingual agent, you may encounter a validation error with the code SynonymsNotUnique. This indicates that the secondary language localization file contains duplicate synonyms or an identical synonym for the DisplayName in a closed-list entity. All synonyms for the same entity must be unique and different from the DisplayName; review the JSON or ResX file and correct any conflicts.