(Legacy Chat) Managing offline form settings

When your Chat widget is offline, visitors can leave a message with their contact information in the offline form.

This article discusses the following topics:

• Editing the offline form message
• Enabling messaging channels

Editing the offline form message

By default, this form is enabled with the message shown "Sorry, we aren't online at the moment. Leave a message and we'll get back to you." You can edit the message that appears or disable the form completely.

The rules for using your offline form differ based on which version of Zendesk Chat you’re using. For help figuring out which version you have, see Determining your Zendesk Chat account version.

• Legacy Zendesk Chat (Chat-only)
• Legacy Zendesk Chat + Support

Legacy Zendesk Chat (Chat-only)

The following instructions apply to you if you are using Legacy Zendesk Chat without Support.

To edit the offline form message

1. In your Chat dashboard, go to Settings > Widget and click the Forms tab.
2. In the Offline Form section, edit the text in the Offline Greeting field, then click Save Changes.

To disable the offline form

1. In your Chat dashboard, go to Settings > Widget and click the Forms tab.
2. In the Offline Form section, click Off, then click Save Changes.

   

   Note: The offline form is disabled automatically if you are using the contact form in the Web Widget (Classic).

Legacy Zendesk Chat

If you’re using Legacy Zendesk Chat with a linked Zendesk Support account, you need to use the contact form component of the Web Widget (Classic). For details, see Using Web Widget (Classic) to embed customer service in your website.

If you are using Chat Phase 3 with the new integrated Chat experience, see Legacy Zendesk Chat (Chat-only), above.

Enabling messaging channels

If you want to link out to your social messaging channels when the widget is offline, you can toggle on the following channels:

• Facebook Messenger
• Twitter Direct Messages

Facebook Messenger

To add your Facebook account, you will need to specify your Facebook username or page ID. We recommend using the page ID because it is constant whereas you can change your username.

To get your page ID

1. Open your Facebook page and click on the About tab.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the More Info section and you will see the specific Page ID. Copy and paste that number into the offline form Settings page.

Twitter Direct Messages

To add your Twitter account, you will need to specify your Twitter User ID. Twitter does not display your Twitter User ID in your Twitter account; however, you can use third party services to locate your ID. Search the internet for 'twitter user id' for more information.

When turning on Twitter Direct Messages on the widget, you will want to ensure that you have turned on "Receive Direct Messages from anyone" in your Twitter account.