Roman Urdu in, Roman Urdu out. Voice notes too.
Roman Urdu is Urdu written in English letters, the way most Pakistanis type on WhatsApp (“kitne ka hai?”, “kal tak mil jayega?”). Aivastark's AI agent reads it, searches your catalogue and knowledge base with it, and replies in the same script the customer used: Roman Urdu, Urdu script or English. Voice notes are transcribed and answered in writing.
Roman Urdu has no fixed spelling (kya, kia and kiya are all common), it mixes freely with English (“size medium hai?”), and to a language detector it can look like English or something else entirely. A support bot that answers it in formal Urdu script, or in English, reads as if it did not understand. This page explains what the agent does with it, and where it can still go wrong.
How the agent handles Roman Urdu
- It replies in the script of the customer's latest message. Roman Urdu in, Roman Urdu out; Urdu script in, Urdu script out; English in, English out.
- It searches across languages. A Roman Urdu question is matched against your knowledge base even when you wrote it in English, so “exchange policy kya hai” finds your exchange policy.
- It understands shop talk: discount questions (“riayat”, “thora kam ho jayega?”), budgets (“5000 tak”), and requests for a person (“team se baat karni hai”).
- It returns the greeting: “Assalam o alaikum” gets “Wa alaikum assalam”, in the same script.
- You choose which languages it may reply in from the Reply languages setting.
How voice notes work
A voice note on WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger goes through four steps:
- The agent downloads the note and transcribes it.
- It decides which language to listen for. If you set a language under Voice messages in Agent Settings, it uses that. If not, it uses the language of the customer's earlier messages as a hint.
- It answers in text, in the customer's language and script, exactly as it would answer a typed question.
- If the note can't be made out, it asks the customer to type the question instead of guessing.
Urdu needs that second step. Spoken Urdu and Hindi sound the same, and transcription models have heard far more Hindi, so without a hint Urdu speech often comes back written in Hindi's Devanagari script. Setting Voice messages to Urdu stops that.
Where it can still go wrong
This is guided behaviour, not a guarantee, and it is better to know the edges before your customers find them:
- The reply language follows instructions to the model, not a hard rule, so now and then a reply can come back in the wrong script. If you spot one in the inbox, tell us: these are the cases we fix first.
- Voice notes in Punjabi, Saraiki, Pashto or Sindhi are transcribed on auto-detect only, so expect weaker results than for Urdu or English.
- Product names with unusual spellings may not match your catalogue the first time. Adding the spellings your customers use to your product descriptions helps.
Set it up
- Connect WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger from the Channels page (Starter and above).
- Add your knowledge: your website, your Shopify or WooCommerce catalogue, and a page with delivery charges, timelines and your exchange policy.
- Set the reply languages you want, and set Voice messages to Urdu if most of your customers speak Urdu.
- Test it: send your own number a Roman Urdu question and a voice note, and read what comes back.
Questions
What is Roman Urdu?
Roman Urdu is Urdu written in the Latin (English) alphabet instead of the Urdu script, for example “aap kaise hain?”. It is how most people in Pakistan type Urdu on WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS.
Can an AI chatbot reply in Roman Urdu?
Yes. Aivastark's agent replies in the script the customer used, so a Roman Urdu message gets a Roman Urdu reply. It handles the common spelling variations and messages that mix Urdu and English.
If a customer writes in Roman Urdu, will it reply in Urdu script?
No. It mirrors the customer: Roman Urdu gets Roman Urdu, and only a message in Urdu script gets a reply in Urdu script.
Can it understand Urdu voice notes on WhatsApp?
Yes. Voice notes are transcribed and answered in text. Set Voice messages to Urdu in Agent Settings if most of your customers speak Urdu, so the speech isn't written out as Hindi.
Does it reply with a voice note?
No. On WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger the agent answers voice notes in writing.
What about Punjabi, Sindhi or Pashto?
Typed messages in other languages are answered too (the agent supports 80+ languages), but Roman Urdu, Urdu and English are the ones it is tuned for in Pakistan. Voice notes in regional languages are transcribed on auto-detect and may be less accurate.
Related
Send it a voice note and see.
Connect WhatsApp or Instagram on the Starter plan (7-day trial), then send your own number a Roman Urdu question and a voice note.