What's New in Kiki (2026)

A roundup of the latest updates to Kiki The Translator: auto-translated polls that count every vote fairly, one-way translation direction for mirror channels, the option to mute wrong-language corrections, and a round of quality and speed improvements across every language.

Most of what landed in Kiki this season came from one recurring request: make a multilingual server feel like a single room, not a translation layer bolted onto separate ones. Polls now translate themselves while still counting one vote per member. Mirror channels can choose which way translations flow. The little wrong-language nudges can be switched off when they stop helping. And underneath all of it, translations got noticeably faster and more natural. Here's the full rundown.

Everything below is live now. The three headline features are available on the Standard tier and up; the quality and speed improvements apply to every tier, including the free one.

Translated polls: one question, every language, one vote each #

What it does for you: a /poll now reaches your whole community in their own language while still producing a single, honest tally. Before this, a poll in a multilingual server was only readable by part of the audience, and the rest either guessed or sat it out. Now Kiki auto-translates the poll so everyone can read it and vote.

How it behaves depends on where you run it:

• In a dedicated or multi-language channel, Kiki replies with the question and every option translated per language. Members vote on the original options, so there's a single set of buttons and a single tally.
• In a mirror channel (inter-channel or inter-server), Kiki posts a translated voting "booth" in each linked channel, each in that channel's own language.

The voting is unified across the whole mirror group, which is the part that makes it trustworthy. Each member gets exactly one vote no matter which booth they use. The same option in another language never double-counts, and if a member changes their vote in any booth, it overwrites their earlier one rather than adding a second. When the timer ends, each booth reports the results in its own language.

One-way translation direction for mirror channels #

What it does for you: you can now decide which way translations flow across a mirror channel, instead of always sending and receiving both. Two-way mirroring is still the default and the right choice for most rooms, but some bridges are meant to broadcast, not converse — a flagship server pushing announcements to a partner, or a regional branch that wants headquarters' messages without exposing its own internal chatter.

Set the direction per mirror channel with /set_translation_direction (you can also just ask Kiki, or choose it inside /set_dedicated_lang):

1. Both: the default; messages translate in and out.
2. Incoming-only: you receive linked messages but your own don't get sent out.
3. Outgoing-only: your messages go out, but theirs aren't shown in your channel.

Mute wrong-language corrections #

What it does for you: you can switch off Kiki's wrong-language nudges on a busy channel while keeping the mirroring itself running. When someone posts in the wrong language for a mirror channel, Kiki normally drops a small reply pointing them at the channel's language. That's genuinely useful while a bridge is new and members are still learning the convention — and a little noisy once they've got the habit.

An admin can turn those corrections off via /mute → "corrections (this channel)" (and /unmute to bring them back), or simply by asking Kiki. The channel keeps mirroring exactly as before; only the correction replies go quiet.

Quality and speed improvements #

What it does for you: translations read more naturally and arrive faster, with no change to how you use them. This round of work touched the engine itself, so it applies on every tier:

• Replies use the original as context. When you reply to a message, Kiki now feeds the message you're replying to into the translation as context, producing a more accurate result that tracks the actual conversation rather than translating your reply in isolation.
• More natural Asian and European languages. Phrasing and tone improved across both families, so translations sound less mechanical and more like something a native speaker would write.
• Better Tagalog accuracy. Tagalog translations specifically got an accuracy boost.
• About 50% faster turnaround. Translations come back roughly twice as quickly, which is most noticeable in fast-moving channels where messages stack up.

Putting it to work #

If you already run mirror channels, the three headline features slot straight into what you have: try a translated /poll, set a direction on any bridge that should broadcast rather than converse, and mute corrections on your busiest rooms. If you're newer to multilingual setup, the bilingual server playbook walks through the channel structure these features build on, and the setup guide covers installing and configuring translation from scratch.