A chat that switches languages
Plenty of work in Canada happens in two languages. The meeting was in English, the summary goes out in French. The code is in English, the user guide is in both. So the chat with ChatGPT ends up mixed: a question in French, an answer in English, a draft in French, a correction in English.
Message by message, that's fine. Over a long chat, it adds up. The decisions are spread across two languages, some terms exist in both versions, and the latest draft isn't always in the language you need next.
What gets lost when you start over
When the chat is too long or starts to drift, the move is a fresh chat. Two ways of doing it rarely work.
Starting cold. You retype the project from memory, in whichever language comes first. The big picture survives. The details don't: the term you agreed to keep in English, the tone you set for the French version, the option you ruled out.
Pasting the whole old chat. It brings back all the bulk, in both languages, with nothing to tell the new chat which version counts and which language to answer in.
What a new chat needs is short: the goal, what's decided, the rules, where you stopped, and the language to carry on in.
Write the handoff in the language of what comes next
A handoff is a short first message for the new chat. Write it in the language the next part of the work happens in. If the next step is the French version, write it in French. If it's the English report, write it in English.
- The goal, in one line.
- What's decided: the choices you don't want reopened.
- The rules you kept repeating: tone, length, format.
- The language rule: which language to answer in, and what stays as is (product names, quotes, terms you agreed on).
- Where you stopped: the latest version, or the exact point you'd reached.
Pick up where we left off. Everything below is settled, so don't ask about it again. GOAL: [what we're making, in one line] DECIDED: - [decision 1] - [decision 2] RULES TO KEEP: - [rule you kept repeating] LANGUAGE: - Answer in [English / French]. - Keep these as they are: [names, terms, quotes] WHERE WE ARE: [the latest version, or where we stopped] Continue from here. Be direct, no recap.
The first message sets the tone, and often the language.
A new chat tends to answer in the language of your first message. If the handoff is in English and you want French, it may start in English. One line in the handoff settles it: "Answer in French."
The faster way: let Uncook write it
Uncook's Handoff writes that first message for you. On the ChatGPT page, click the Uncook icon: it picks up the chat. Pick Handoff. You get a prompt with your goal, what's decided, the rules you set and where you stopped.
The prompt follows the language of the conversation, so the new chat can carry on naturally. If your chat mixed English and French, read the prompt before you send it, and add the language line from the template if you need one. Then copy it into a new chat.
It works the same way for chats in Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Mistral Vibe (ex-Le Chat), Gemini Notebook and Google AI Studio.
When you need it in the other language
Sometimes you don't want to continue the chat, you want what it says, in the other language: a summary of an English chat for a French-speaking colleague, for example.
That's Summarize. Once you have the summary, use Adjust to set the language, the tone and who it's for. Each adjustment runs Summarize again, and counts as a task.
Handoff has no language setting: it follows the chat. If you want the new chat to work in the other language, say so in the handoff, as in the template above.
Questions people ask
Will the new chat answer in French if the handoff is in English? Not always. A new chat tends to follow the language of your first message. To be sure, write the handoff in French, or add "Answer in French" to it.
Can Uncook translate my handoff? No. The handoff follows the language of the conversation. If you need a summary in another language, Summarize can be adjusted to that language; each adjustment counts as a task.
Is Uncook available in French? Yes. Uncook's interface is in French as well as English.
Start fresh,
without starting over.
Add to Chrome
We don't keep the conversations you bring. When you click Send to Uncook in the extension window, the extension sends the chat from your tab to our servers, encrypted, for up to 30 minutes, and we delete it as soon as your Uncook page opens it. What Uncook makes from it is kept as a task, for as long as our Privacy page says. Neither your chats nor your tasks are used to train AI models.