Question
When is my live chat option available to my customers? How can I reference a schedule for my agent's availability when using live chat, Chat in Agent Workspaces, or the bot builder in messaging?
Answer
Options will vary based on what Chat experience you are using. Refer to the below to see when chat is available based on which version of Chat is being used.
Live chat and Chat in Agent Workspace
The live chat option is only presented to your customers if one of your agents has set their availability status to Online. If none of your agents are online, set up the offline form or contact form to allow your customers to contact your team.
You can create a schedule of operating hours that keeps all agent statuses offline outside of your scheduled hours. If it is outside of operating hours, the option to live chat won't be available.
AI agents in messaging (Legacy)
Messaging offers persistent conversations and will display at all times. You can add a condition that references your scheduled business hours in Support. To set a schedule in Support, see the article: Setting your schedule with business hours and holidays.
Add a business hours condition to apply your schedule to the messaging widget which can create different bot responses based on your schedule.
Note:
- This article applies only to customers who had a drafted or published AI agent as of February 2, 2025. For information about equivalent functionality in the AI agents – Advanced add-on, see Building dialogues for AI agents – Advanced.
- Any schedules you create in Support do not transfer to Chat. For more information, see the article: What is the difference between Support business hours and Chat operating hours?