Answer every caller in the language they speak
Start a 14-day free trial, turn on Spanish, Arabic or Bengali in Settings, and call your own line to hear it.
For medical and dental practices
Lydoh answers your practice's phone 24/7 in English and, if you turn them on, Spanish, Arabic and Bengali. Callers talk in the language they are comfortable with. Your team gets every request written in English, marked with the language the caller spoke.
Flat $199/mo · languages included · an AI receptionist, not a call center
One short line per language you turn on, said in that language.
Why it matters
In 2018 to 2022, 21.7% of people age 5 and older in the US spoke a language other than English at home, and Spanish was 61.1% of that group, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.[1]Of those Spanish speakers, 61.0% said they spoke English "very well", which leaves roughly 39% (our subtraction) who reported speaking it less than very well.
The phone call is often the first conversation a patient has with your practice. A 2019 systematic review of 33 studies found that 25 of them (76%) showed at least one outcome was better when patients got care from a physician who spoke their language, though none of the studies measured the physician's language skills in a standardized way.[2] A 2025 scoping review of 22 studies found that patients with language barriers appeared to be at risk for communication-sensitive safety events, including medication-related adverse events.[3]
Those studies are about clinical care, not phone answering. Lydoh does not replace care in a patient's language. What it does is make sure a caller who would rather speak Spanish, Arabic or Bengali can get their request to your team without struggling through an English-only line.
How it works in a call
Example
A sample exchange we wrote to show the flow. It is an illustration, not a recording or transcript of a real call.
Thanks for calling the clinic, this is Lydoh. How can I help? Si prefiere español, hable en español.
(Greeting in English, then the Spanish invitation: "If you prefer Spanish, speak in Spanish.")
Hola, necesito una cita para mi hijo. Tiene tos desde hace tres días.
Hi, I need an appointment for my son. He has had a cough for three days.
Con gusto le ayudo. ¿Cómo se llama su hijo?
Happy to help. What is your son's name?
Mateo Ramírez.
Mateo Ramírez.
Gracias. ¿A qué número le podemos devolver la llamada?
Thank you. What number can we call you back at?
Al 555 010 0142.
555 010 0142.
Cinco, cinco, cinco, cero, uno, cero, cero, uno, cuatro, dos. ¿Es correcto?
Five, five, five, zero, one, zero, zero, one, four, two. Is that right?
Sí.
Yes.
Listo. Dejé su solicitud con el equipo y le llamarán para confirmar la cita.
Done. I left your request with the team and they will call you to confirm the appointment.
What your staff see
Whatever language the call was in, Lydoh saves the request, the reason, the notes and any message in English, and writes names in English letters. It adds a note such as "Caller speaks Spanish" so whoever calls back knows to use that language or an interpreter. Lydoh tells the caller the team will call them back. It does not promise that the person calling back speaks their language, because that is your decision to make.
Example request · from the call above
Languages
English is always on. Turn on any of the three under Settings, Languages. Leave them off and your line stays English only, exactly as before.
Si prefiere español, hable en español.
If you prefer Spanish, speak in Spanish.
إذا كنت تفضل العربية، تحدث بالعربية.
If you prefer Arabic, speak in Arabic.
বাংলায় কথা বলতে চাইলে, বাংলায় বলুন।
If you would like to speak Bengali, speak in Bengali.
These are the only languages Lydoh supports today besides English.
Safety
Every rule Lydoh follows in English applies in every language. A caller who describes an emergency is told, in their own language, to hang up and dial 911. Lydoh never gives medical advice in any language, and if it cannot understand something, it says so and asks the caller to repeat rather than guess at a name, a number or a medication.
We tested this with simulated callers in Spanish, Arabic and Bengali. One was a Spanish-speaking caller describing chest pain after hours, who was told in Spanish to hang up and dial 911 in Lydoh's first reply. Urgent after-hours calls that are not emergencies route to your on-call provider the same way English calls do; see after-hours answering for how that works.
Honest comparison
Languages are one setting on the same medical answering service: appointment requests, answers from your practice's own information, refill requests, and after-hours on-call routing. Pair it with appointment reminders, read how we handle patient data, or see pricing.
FAQ
A bilingual answering service picks up your practice's calls and can talk with callers in English and a second language, most often Spanish. Lydoh is an AI version: it answers 24/7, speaks English plus any of Spanish, Arabic and Bengali that you turn on, and hands your team every request written in English.
Not human ones. Lydoh is an AI receptionist, not a call center. With Spanish turned on, it speaks Spanish itself on every call, at any hour, so there is no wait for a Spanish-speaking operator to become free. If you specifically need people on the line, Lydoh is not that.
Yes. With Spanish on, Lydoh hears English and Spanish in the same call and answers in whichever one the caller uses, switching if they switch mid-sentence, in the same voice. We tested it with simulated Spanish-speaking callers, including one describing chest pain after hours, who was told in Spanish to hang up and dial 911 in Lydoh's first reply.
English is always on. Each practice can also turn on Spanish, Arabic and Bengali, in any combination, under Settings, Languages. If you leave them all off, your line stays English only, exactly as before.
Yes. Whatever language the call was in, Lydoh writes the request, the reason, the notes and any message in English, with names in English letters, and adds a note such as "Caller speaks Spanish" so your team knows to call back in that language or with an interpreter.
No. Lydoh is a receptionist that answers the phone, takes requests and routes urgent calls. It is not a certified or qualified medical interpreter and does not interpret conversations between patients and clinicians. Where a qualified interpreter is needed or required, use one. Federal rules under Section 1557 set requirements for interpreters and machine translation in covered health programs; ask counsel how they apply to you.
Lydoh's practice plan is a flat $199 a month, with the extra languages included rather than billed as an add-on, and a 14-day free trial.
Sources
Published October 5, 2026 by VoiceboxMD. Sources checked on publication.
Start a 14-day free trial, turn on Spanish, Arabic or Bengali in Settings, and call your own line to hear it.