- If you currently use live chat, see Creating a messaging Web Widget when using live chat and Web Widget (Classic).
- If you don't use live chat and your account was created after November 2, 2021, see Creating a messaging Web Widget.
This article includes the following topics:
You can also activate messaging on an Android or iOS app.
Activating messaging in your account
After you confirm that you meet the requirements for using messaging, you can activate it in your account.
To activate messaging on your account
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > Messaging.
- Click Manage settings.
- On the Manage settings page, click Turn on messaging for your account.
If you see an onboarding page, you need to click Get started before you can activate messaging.
- Click Save settings.
After messaging is activated, it appears in your Channels list with Web Widget listed as an active channel.
Turning on messaging for a Web Widget
If you’re turning on messaging for a Web Widget without having previously used Web Widget (Classic), you’ll need to create a widget. Because messaging is activated per-brand, you’ll need to perform these steps for each brand that will offer messaging to your customers.
To activate messaging Web Widget
- In Admin Center, click
Channels in the sidebar, then select Messaging and social > Messaging.
- Click Add Channel, then select Web Widget.
- On the Add Web Widget page, configure the following sections, and click Next when each is completed:
- Set up the basics: Enter a channel name, then use the dropdown to select a brand. Only brands without an existing Web Widget or Web Widget (Classic) appear in the list.
- Style the appearance: Enter a hexadecimal number or use the picker to select the Primary color, which is used in the Web Widget launcher and header. Upload an optional logo, and enter the title that will appear in the header.
- Install on your site: Choose where to install the Web Widget. See The Installation tab for more information on adding the Web Widget to your website or help center.
- Click Finish.
The Edit Web Widget page opens, where you can configure the Web Widget or leave it as-is for now. You can also customize the appearance of the Web Widget.
101 comments
Sheryar Shirazi
how can we add a support faq in this new Web messenger SDK?
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Taylor Schmidt
Is it possible to have the Web Messenger load via API Launcher on some pages, but as a circle/square beacon on others? For instance, we would like the circle widget to appear in our Help Center, but to load Messenger via API in our main application.
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Mark L
The programmatic offset has been requested several times over the past few years in this thread. Do we have any timelines on when this will arrive? We need to programmatically set the vertical offset on a select few pages, since otherwise, the new zendesk messenger widget will block our UI.
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Sabra
Sheryar Shirazi - With this Web Widget, you can customize the flow of the conversation using by customizing a Bot. This Bot can be configured to present Support FAQs. For more information on this, check out this article: Bot and Flow Builder resources.
Taylor Schmidt - all our currently available APIs for the Web Widget can be found here: https://developer.zendesk.com/api-reference/widget-messaging/web/core/. I'd recommend checking this out to see if it meets your needs, especially the show/hide/open/close options.
Mark L - We are working on adding more APIs, and you can check out our Changelog to quickly see what has been added recently. At this time, we don't have an ETA on for offset.
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Vi Luu
I'm upgrading from The Support to The Zendesk Suite but cann't find Messaging and social under Channel menu.
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Gabriel Manlapig
For reference, please see below Prerequisites to activate messaging:
I hope these information helps!
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Robert Campbell
Is there still not a way to 1) allow the customer to choose chat or contact form or 2) provide contact form in off-hours or to customers who's service plan does not provide chat? If I need these 2 functions, I should be using the Classic widget, correct? And on that note, the Classic widget configurator tool does not seem to provide realtime previews.
1
Mike DR
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Ryan Arredondo
Can you clarify why this article has “Legacy” in the title? Is there an updated article that you can share? Thanks
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Aimee Spanier
Hi, Ryan. This article applies to accounts created before November 2021, which have a different process for turning on and configuring a messaging Web Widget. I've added a note at the top explaining that, and linking to the article for newer accounts. Thanks!
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Leyla Oge
I have the classic widget and when I activate messaging it shows the chat option in a separate place to our current web widget. Is there any way this can be added into the classic web widget as a chat option instead of being a separate speech bubble?
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