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Sending files in a chat

Zendesk Team
  • Edited

With file sending, agents and visitors can add screenshots and other relevant files directly to a chat from the dashboard or widget. Later, a link to the file and its thumbnail appear in History for the chat.

Important: Attached files are uploaded as links in a chat session. Regardless of your authentication settings, those links can be accessed by anyone with the URL.

This article includes the following topics:

About file sending

If file sending is enabled for your account, a clipboard icon appears in the bottom right of the chat panel:

By default, agents and visitors can send the following file types:

  • PDF (.pdf)
  • PNG (.png)
  • JPEG (.jpeg)
  • GIF (.gif)
  • Text (.txt)

The size limit for files is 20 MB.

Administrators can also choose to allow other file types in additions to the ones listed above. For more information, see Managing file sharing.

Sharing a file as a visitor

Visitors to your site can follow these steps to share files with agents.

To share a file as a visitor

  1. Drag and drop a file into the chat widget box.

    Alternatively, you can select Options > Send a File and select the file.

  2. Wait for the file to upload to the chat.

    At this point, the file appears in the chat transcript and in the agent's dashboard.

Sharing a file as an agent

The following steps describe how an agent can share a file in a chat.

To share a file as an agent

  1. Drag and drop a file onto the chat panel.

    Alternatively, you can click the paperclip icon in the lower right-hand corner of the chat panel and select the file.

  2. Wait for the file to upload to the chat.

The file appears in the visitor's widget.

Note: Agents chatting with each other through the Chat Dashboard cannot share files.

Deleting a file attachment

You can delete any files attached to a chat.

To delete individual attachments from chats

  1. In the Chat dashboard, select History.
  2. Click the chat that contains the attachment you want to delete.
  3. Under the attachment title, click Delete.

    The attachment will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.

    Note: The link for the deleted attachment might be available for up to 24 hours after deletion.
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22 Comments

  • Victor

    Is there any way to send image attachment via REST chat api?

    0
  • Ramin Shokrizadeh
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Victory,

    The Chat REST APIs are not designed to support ongoing chats, they focus on past chats. We have no immediate plans in the next 6 months to offer APIs to trigger actions during an ongoing chat.

    Can you walk me through the use case you are trying to support?

    Thanks,
    Ramin

    0
  • Victor

    Hi Ramin,

    Do you mean it's impossible for make a realtime-chat with Zendesk REST API and websocket right now.
    I thought these APIs:
    https://developer.zendesk.com/rest_api/docs/chat/chats
    https://developer.zendesk.com/rest_api/docs/chat/apis#streaming-api
    can support live-chat? Can it?

    Also, I also notice other API clients here: https://developer.zendesk.com/rest_api/docs/api-clients/introduction. Can these API clients support live-chat ?

    0
  • Ramin Shokrizadeh
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Victor,

    The streaming API is designed for reporting of real time data in aggregate, not to do certain actions in a specific chat.

    Currently, there are no API clients that support the Chat REST APIs and the clients listed on that page are for the Support product only.

    Thanks,
    Ramin

    0
  • Ellen van Beek

    Hi, 

    Is there a way to only enable File Sending from the agent point of view and not as a visitor? 

    Thank you. 

    0
  • Ramin Shokrizadeh
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Ellen,

    There is no way to support this with the native widget. You can look into building a custom widget that does not support file sending using the Web SDK: https://api.zopim.com/web-sdk/

    Web SDK is only available to customers on the Enterprise plan and requires development work on your end. 

    Thanks,

    Ramin

    0
  • vivek mishra

    Hi Ramin, 

    How can we enable file sharing option in chat sample provided by zendesk for android platform?

    This would be for visitors.

    0
  • Ramin Shokrizadeh
    Zendesk Product Manager

    @Vivek it should be there in sample app automatically. If it doesn't work, try turning off and on file sending in your account as an admin and reload the app. If you are still having trouble, please email chat@zendesk.com and we can troubleshoot further. 

    0
  • Diego

    I need the same than Ellen.
    I am creating an APP to send files from an image bank.

    But i can't find a way to do it through API.

    For example, through API can send a text message using

    ZAFClient.invoke('chat.sendChat', "Text Message");

    There is a way to send a picture?

    Thanks

    0
  • Ramin Shokrizadeh
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Diego,

    The apps framework currently does not have an API endpoint to send files or images. For now, you might need to send the URL to the file from the image bank app instead of the file itself.

    There are no plans in 2018 to add an attachment API to the Chat apps APIs.

    Thanks,

    Ramin

    0
  • Us Kumangxxx

    Hi

    can we send file using conversation API ?

    0
  • Ramin Shokrizadeh
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Us,

    Currently, there is no API to trigger a file sending event using the Conversations API.

    -Ramin

     

    0
  • Us Kumangxxx

    Hi, so image sending is not possible at all in Conversation API ?

     

    0
  • Ramin Shokrizadeh
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Correct. At this time, it isn't supported.

    0
  • Sowmya Suravarapu

    What is the syntax for sending messages to the visitors?

    I'm following below syntax:

    ws.send(json.dumps(sendMessageQuery(chatMessage["channel"]["id"], chatbot_msg))) but it is throwing errors
    0
  • Ramin Shokrizadeh
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Sowmya,

    Can you email chat@zendesk.com so you can get assistance with the conversations APIs? Thanks.

    -Ramin

    0
  • Rinku Kumari

    Hi Zendesk product Managers,

    I have requested few days back removing attachment ability from Zopim api. Below thread i had chat with  Kyle Jones looking if  this feature will be available in future 

    https://develop.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/4839006

    0
  • Ramin Shokrizadeh
    • Edited
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Rinku,

    Thanks for sharing your feedback. We don't have any immediate plans to offer a delete attachment API. If that changes, we will keep you updated here.

    If you want to remove support for attachment sending in the widget, you can look at building a custom widget using the Web SDK: https://api.zopim.com/web-sdk

    Thanks,

    Ramin

     

    0
  • Armando Vilaça Lambertucci

    Hi everyone, for how long a zopim attachment link is avaiable for download?

    thanks

    0
  • Gail L
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hi Armando,

    The attachments stay available in the chat history unless they're actively deleted, there isn't a time limit where they'll expire. 

    0
  • Варвара Шкатова

    When will the clipboard start working in the chat? This is a basic functionality that is still not available in zendesk where it is most needed.

    0
  • Nicole S.
    Zendesk Community Team

    It should be operational; if it is not working for you and you are using supported file types, I would suggest initiating a chat with our support team to troubleshoot your implementation. 

    0

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