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Preparing to upgrade your live chat account to Chat Phase 4

Aimee Spanier
  • Edited
Zendesk Documentation Team

Zendesk is migrating all legacy live chat accounts to Chat Phase 4, an enhanced Chat experience which moves live chat functionality from the chat widget to the Web Widget (Classic).

Currently, migrating to Chat Phase 4 is optional. However, we recommend making the move sooner rather than later, to give yourself and your team plenty of time to complete the migration tasks.

Before upgrading from legacy live chat to the enhanced experience, you need to make a few changes to your account. These tasks are required to merge some of the Chat and Support data that is currently separate on your legacy live chat account, but will be shared in the new configuration.

This article describes the steps your account administrator must take prior to upgrading a legacy live chat account to the enhanced experience.

To learn about why Zendesk wants you to upgrade to the enhanced Chat experience see Upgrade your Legacy Chat + Support account to Chat Phase 4.

This article contains the following sections:

Initiating the migration process

Before starting the migration, you’ll need to request migration assistance from your account representative. We’ll schedule an upgrade date and time, and notify you through email and in-product messaging soon after.

Once you receive this notification, you can begin preparing for the migration (which is what we’re covering here).
Note: You must complete the steps in this article at least three days prior to your upgrade date, at which point you should not make any changes to your account configurations or agent list until your upgrade has been completed.

Confirming agent email addresses

Because the enhanced Chat experience makes live chat functionality available through a shared Support channel, each agent will sign in through a single email address for Chat and Support.

To ensure that we’ve correctly identified your agents’ expected sign in information, you will need to confirm their email addresses after you have received your migration date and time.

To confirm your agents’ email settings

  1. Sign in to your Chat dashboard and click Settings > Agents > Needs Review.

  2. Click on an agent name.
  3. Choose an Agent Type from the scenarios listed below.
  4. Click Confirm.

Agent type scenarios

For all of the scenarios in this section, admins should confirm that each agent’s settings are correct:

  • Is the agent Chat-only, Support-only, or Chat and Support?
  • Are their Chat and Support accounts correctly linked?

See the configuration scenarios described below to determine what changes, if any, you or your agents need to make.

Note: Scenario 4 is uncommon, but it is very important that admins make the required changes for their agents in this category three or more days before the upgrade occurs.

Scenario 1: Agent works in both Support and Chat using a single email address

Example: Agent 1 handles customer support requests that come in through the Chat channel, and through the Support channel. The agent logs in to Chat and Support separately, but uses the same email address to log in to both.

What we’ll do: We will automatically identify Chat and Support accounts using the same email address, then merge them for you.

What admins need to do: Confirm that your agent settings are correct, and update if necessary.

What agents need to do: Agents will sign in with their Support credentials.

Scenario 2: Agent is Chat-only

Example: Agent 2 handles only customer requests that come in via Chat. They have no user profile in Zendesk Support.

What we’ll do: We will automatically create a new agent ID on the Support side in the upgraded account , using the existing email address and agent alias

What admins need to do: Confirm that your agent settings are correct, and update if necessary.

What agents need to do: Agents will receive an email to create a new password after the upgrade is completed. They will need to click on a link in the email and follow the instructions to reset their password.

Scenario 3: Agent is Support-only

Example: Agent 3 handles only customer requests that come in via Support. They have no user profile in Zendesk Chat.

What we’ll do: We will move the agent’s email address and user ID to the upgraded account.

What admins need to do: Confirm that your agent settings are correct, and update if necessary. No action is required on the confirmation wizard.

What agents need to do: Agents will sign in to the upgraded account using their current email and password.

Scenario 4: Agent works in both Support and Chat using two different email addresses

Example: Agent 4 handles customer support requests that come in through the Chat channel, and through the Support channel. The agent logs in to Chat and Support separately, and uses one email address to log in to Chat (i.e., chat.agent.4@youraccount.com), and another to log in to Support (i.e., support.agent.4@youraccount.com).

What admins need to do: Identify agents that fall into this category and choose a corresponding Support agent to merge with this Chat agent. Select the email address associated with their Support account.

What agents need to do: After the migration, agents will use their Support credentials to sign in to the upgraded account.

Checking your IP restriction settings

When your account is upgraded to the enhanced experience, your Support IP restrictions will be applied to Chat functionality. You should complete the tasks below prior to your upgrade date, to ensure a smooth transition.
Note: IP restrictions are used to meet specific security needs. If you are not using IP restrictions on your Chat or Support accounts, you can skip to the next section. If you are not sure about your IP restrictions, follow the steps below.

To check and update your IP restriction settings

  1. Sign in to your Chat dashboard, then go to Settings > Account and click the Security tab.
  2. Note the IP addresses included on your restriction list. These are the IP addresses that can access your Chat dashboard and account pages.

  3. Next, click the Zendesk Products icon () in the top bar, then select Admin Center.
  4. Click the Security icon () in the left sidebar, then click Advanced.
  5. Click the IP Restrictions tab. Note the IP addresses included in the Allowed IP ranges list. These are the IP addresses that can access your Zendesk products, including Chat after your account is upgraded.

  6. Make sure any IP addresses from the Chat IP list are included in the Support IP list.
  7. If you have added any IP addresses to the Support IP list, click Save.

Adding Chat-only agents to your SAML provider (Professional and Enterprise plans)

If you have SAML authentication enabled for your Support account, you’ll need to assign the authentication to your Chat-only agents before they can sign in to the enhanced experience. See Assigning SAML SSO to users for more information.

(Recommended) Updating to the integrated Web Widget (Classic)

To provide a smoother experience for your customers when the upgrade occurs, you will need to update your Chat service to the Web Widget (Classic).

To know which widget experience is enabled for your Chat account, see Which widget to I have with my Zendesk account and website?

In all cases, the account will switch to the new Web Widget (Classic) experience after the upgrade.

I'm already using the Web Widget snippet

No action is required. When the account switch occurs, the Web Widget (Classic) experience will reflect your existing configuration.

However, if you are using a Content Security Policy (CSP), we recommend that you make sure it is updated to support the Web Widget (Classic) experience going forward. See our developer documentation, Content Security Policy (CSP) support, for more information.

I'm using the legacy Chat (Zopim) snippet

You will need to move to the integrated Web Widget (Classic) on your help center or website before the upgrade. you can minimize the impact on your agents’ workflow, as well as your customers’ experience.

What will change?

  • The Chat look and feel will change slightly.
  • The majority of the Chat APIs will continue to work. However, certain Javascript APIs will no longer work. Most importantly, If you are using the legacy ‘setNotes’ or ‘appendNotes’ API see Migrating from the setNotes an appendNotes API for more information on mitigating the impact on your workflow.
  • If you have multiple channels enabled in the Web Widget (Classic), such as help center, Support, or Talk, and want to only feature live chat on certain pages, then you can use the suppress Javascript API to suppress other channels, except live chat, on those pages. See Making the Web Widget (Classic) Chat-only for information.

For more details, please see the article on Feature differences.

See Configuring components in the Web Widget (Classic) to learn more about configuring different channels in the Web Widget (Classic) beyond live chat.

Enable account assumption

We want to ensure that the migration is successful at our first attempt. This means we may need to troubleshoot problems on the fly. Please allow Zendesk to access your account as an agent for the duration of the migration. Granting access does not affect your license, or your available agent seats.

To grant temporary access to your account, see Granting Zendesk temporary access to your account.

Next steps

Once the tasks in this article have been completed, you’re ready to start the migration.

While you wait, you can familiarize yourself with the changes you’ll see in your account post-migration, read the migration FAQ, and learn about the differences between your old and new chat phases.

Once you receive notice that your upgrade is done, follow the instructions in Completing the upgrade to Chat Phase 4.

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