How do I enable or disable live chat or messaging in my Zendesk account?

Question

How do I turn live chat or messaging on or off?

Answer

Live chat and messaging settings are in different locations. If you are not sure which product you are using, see the articles:

• Am I using live chat or messaging?
• Messaging vs. live chat: which is right for you
  

If you are seeing Chat for the first time in your account and are not sure why, see the article: Why do I suddenly have Chat on my account?

Click on the tabs below based on your account features.

Enable live chat

Disable live chat

Enable messaging

Disable messaging

Enable live chat

1. In Admin Center, click Channels > Classic > Web Widget.
2. Enable Chat in the Web Widget (Classic) settings. If you have multiple brands, open the specific brand widget you want to use.
   
3. Configure the role permissions for the appropriate agents to use Chat.
4. Add the Web Widget (Classic) to your help center or company website.
5. Have at least one agent set to Online to receive live chats. 

• If you are using Agent Workspace, you set your agent status from the Support interface.
• If you are using the classic Support interface, you set your agent status from the Chat dashboard. Open the products icon and select Chat to navigate to the dashboard.
  • If you or another agent encounters a problem when opening Chat, see the article: How do I verify that agents who receive “Zendesk Chat is not enabled for you” have the correct permissions?

If you are testing live chat as both an agent and as an end user at the same time, you may need to open the widget in a new private browser window for the chat function to appear after you set yourself to Online. For a walkthrough of the steps above, see the video:

For more information on Chat enablement, see the articles:

• Introduction: Planning your live chat deployment
• Configuring and deploying live chat
  
• Setting up Chat in Zendesk Support
• How do I manually install the Zendesk Chat widget in my Shopify store?
• Error: Channel couldn’t be added
• Installing Zendesk Chat for WordPress

Disable live chat

1. In Admin Center, click Channels > Classic > Web Widget.
2. Under the Customization tab, disable the setting for Chat.
   
3. Click Save at the bottom of the settings page.

See below for a video demonstration of where to remove live chat from your Web Widget (Classic) settings.

If you want to remove the Web Widget (Classic) entirely rather than only removing the live chat function, remove the widget script from your website and disable the setting to add the Web Widget (Classic) to your help center. For more information, see the article: Removing Web Widget (Classic) from your website or help center.

Enable messaging

1. Check and make sure your account meets the requirements to use messaging.
2. Enable at least one agent to use Chat under their role permissions.
3. In Admin Center, click Channels > Messaging and social > Messaging. If your plan does not meet the plan requirements to use messaging, the option for Messaging will not appear.
4. Click into an existing Web Widget (Classic) and select Turn on messaging.
5. In Admin Center, navigate to Bots and automation > Bots.
6. Set up the bot conversation elements and answer pathways that you wish to offer from bot builder. Before doing so, you may want to build out your help center with content for bot builder to suggest.
7. When you are ready to offer messaging, enable the Web Widget on your help center, or embed the widget code directly on your own website. For more information, see the article: Installing the Web Widget.

For more information about getting started with messaging, see the article and the video below:

• Enabling a messaging channel

Disable messaging

1. In Admin Center, click Channels > Messaging and Social > Messaging.
2. Click Manage settings at the top of the page.
3. Under Turn on messaging for Web Widget, delete the brand you want to disconnect.
4. Click Save.

For a walkthrough of how to disable messaging, see the video below:

If you want to remove the Web Widget entirely rather than only removing the messaging function, you need to remove the widget script from your website and disable the setting to add the Web Widget to your help center. For more information, see the article: Installing the Web Widget.