Question

How do I turn live chat or messaging on or off? How do I revert to the previous version of live chat and turn off messaging? Can I deactivate messaging? Can I create multiple Web Widgets?

Answer

Understand the experience

Do you use live chat or messaging?

Live chat (Web Widget (Classic)) and messaging (Web Widget) are different widgets and their settings exist in different locations.

  • Live chat is a legacy feature for chat and help center integration
  • Messaging includes more features, such as social messaging, help center suggestions, bots, and artificial intelligence (AI)

Understand which product you use.

With multiple widgets

Create multiple widgets at once

To use more than one type of widget:

  1. Use the multibrand feature to create multiple brands
    • If you don’t see the option to create a brand, verify that your plan allows multiple brands
  2. If you create multiple brands, you can create multiple widgets. In Admin Center, go to Channels icon Channels > Classic > Web Widget
  3. From that page, verify that you don’t already have a widget for each brand before you attempt to create a new widget
  4. If you don’t have a Web Widget for your brand, click Add channel and follow the instructions on the page

With live chat

Turn off live chat on older accounts

To remove live chat:

  1. Remove the widget script from the source code of your website
  2. If you have a help center, turn off the Help Center setting that adds the Web Widget (Classic) to your help center

Live chat cannot be turned off from a setting.

Turn off live chat and move to messaging

To use messaging instead of live chat:

  1. Verify that your account meets the requirements to use messaging
  2. Create at least one agent to use Chat under their role permissions
  3. Verify that the Agent Workspace is on
    • If you don’t use the Agent Workspace, migrate first
  4. In Admin Center, go to Channels icon Channels > Messaging and social > Messaging
    • If your plan doesn’t meet the plan requirements to use messaging, the option for Messaging doesn’t appear
  5. In the widget list, click the name of your existing Web Widget (Classic)

    • If you see Web Widget instead of Web Widget (Classic) in the list, you already use messaging

  6. At the top, select Turn on messaging
  7. When a new page loads, configure the Web Widget appearance
  8. Customize your default messaging behavior
    • If you used Chat triggers in the Chat dashboard, you can now create messaging triggers in Admin Center instead
    • If you want to add an AI agent to your messaging channel, in the Responses tab, click Add an AI agent
      • You use an AI agent to build your conversation flow
      • The messaging response deactivates and the standard responses for the AI agent replace it
  9. Install the Web Widget on your website or help center
  10. New conversations create Support tickets, which appear in your ticket views and you can search for them in Support
  11. Route your tickets to different teams and agents of your choice

Note: Messaging provides a unique experience compared to live chat, with certain limitations.

With messaging

Turn on messaging for the first time

If you never used live chat, messaging exists by default in your account. To configure it:

  1. In Admin Center, go to Workspaces icon Workspaces > Agent Workspace. Ensure that Turn on agent workspace is ticked. This is a new user experience
    • If you don’t use the Agent Workspace, migrate first
  2. In the side panel, go to Channels icon Channels > Messaging and social > Messaging
  3. Click Manage settings. If the option isn't on, tick Turn on messaging for your account and click Save settings
  4. Go back to Channels icon Channels > Messaging and social > Messaging > Add channel > Web Widget
    • If you don’t see the option, verify that a widget isn't on the list below. You may already use a Web Widget
  5. Add a Channel name
  • Add a privacy notice and click Next
  • Email the code for the Web Widget to your developer team so they can add it to the source code of your website when you’re ready and click Next
  • Choose a color, title, and logo and click Next
  • When a new page loads, configure the Web Widget appearance
  • Customize your default messaging behavior
    1. If you used Chat triggers in the Chat dashboard, you can now create messaging triggers in Admin Center instead
    2. If you want to add an AI agent to your messaging channel, in the Responses tab, click Add an AI agent
      1. You use an AI agent to build your conversation flow
      2. The messaging response deactivates and the standard responses for the AI agent replace it
  • Install the Web Widget on your website or help center
  • New conversations create Support tickets, which appear in your ticket views and you can search for them in Support
  • Route your tickets to different teams and agents of your choice
  • When you’re ready to offer messaging, add the Web Widget to your help center or add the Web Widget to the source code of your website

Watch the video below to learn how to turn on messaging in your account.

Turn off messaging completely

To remove messaging:

  1. Remove the widget script from the source code of your website
  2. If you have a help center, turn off the setting that adds the Web Widget to your help center

Conversations on your website cannot be turned off from a setting.

Turn off messaging and revert to live chat on older accounts

Note: If you aren’t able to follow the steps below, you have a newer account with messaging by default and aren’t able to revert to live chat.

To remove messaging and return to live chat:

  1. In Admin Center, go to Channels icon Channels > Messaging and social > Messaging
  2. In the widget list, click the name of your existing Web Widget
    • In the list, if you see Web Widget (Classic) instead of Web Widget, you already use live chat
  3. Scroll down, click Installation, and open that tab
  4. Click the Switch to Web Widget (Classic) red button
  5. When a pop-up appears, click the Switch to Web Widget (Classic) red button
  6. If you created messaging triggers, configure Chat triggers instead
  7. You use the Agent Workspace experience, which means that new conversations create Support tickets, which appear in your ticket views and you can search for them in Support
  8. Route your tickets to different teams and agents of your choice
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