As stated in our announcement, we’re making it easy for selected Zendesk customers to move from Chat to messaging by completing the first activation step on your behalf. This will allow you to begin providing your customers an enhanced conversational experience with as little effort as possible.
This FAQ addresses the following questions:
- What’s going on?
- What is Zendesk messaging?
- What does this mean for the future of Chat?
- Is there a charge for this change?
- What do I need to do before the migration?
- What do I need to do during the migration?
- What do I need to do after the migration?
- What if messaging isn’t right for me and I don’t want to migrate?
- What are the major parity gaps between live chat and messaging today?
- Are there any specific behaviors that are “different” from Chat and that I should be aware of when moving from Chat to messaging?
- What resources are available to help me move from Chat to messaging?
What’s going on?
If you’ve been contacted by Zendesk for assisted messaging activation, it’s because we’re going to turn messaging on in your account and create a ready-to-use Web Widget that you can install in your help center or website for each of your brands. We’ll also take care of upgrading the legacy Web Widget (Classic) to this new (messaging) Web Widget on any web pages where it’s not actively being used.
What is Zendesk messaging?
Messaging is the future of Zendesk conversational experiences between you and your customers, offering new capabilities above and beyond what legacy Chat offers today, such as:
- Automated conversation bots, created with bot builder, our drag-and-drop designer. This will help reduce support costs by using automation to guide customers to a resolution with customized conversational text and rich content elements (images, GIFs, emojis, and button links).
- A unified channel experience, so your agents can more efficiently manage requests from your website, help center, mobile app(s), and third parties in a single workspace, and give your customers a consistent experience across channels.
- Conversation history, so both agents and customers can view past interactions for greater insight into your ongoing support relationships, allowing for increased agent efficiency and a more personalized customer experience.
What does this mean for the future of Chat?
Our Chat product today lacks features and functionality synonymous with messaging in the market, which is where customer preferences now lie. Rather than build this into our existing Chat, we opted to build a brand new experience called Zendesk messaging.
We do not have immediate plans to end of life (EOL) our live chat offering. However, with limited investments being made in our live chat software, customers looking for new and upgraded features will increasingly find that messaging is better suited to satisfy your use cases.
Is there a charge for this change?
If you have been targeted for auto-activation, it’s because messaging is already available to you and included in your plan at no cost. Please note that if you choose to use our bot builder, you may incur usage charges if you exceed the amount of usage that is included in your plan. While bot builder is not required to use messaging, the majority of our customers will activate it in order to benefit from the enhanced self-service capabilities and operational efficiencies it unlocks.
What do I need to do before the migration?
We recommend you get ahead of the upcoming change by taking the following actions:
- Review Migrating from live chat to messaging and Limitations in messaging functionality.
- Train your admins and agents.
- Test messaging in your sandbox or free trial account.
- Note that when converting to the messaging Web Widget, any active live chats will end and any in-progress tickets will remain pending. Before doing so, we recommend that you close out active live chats, take agents offline, and consider making this change during an off-peak period.
What do I need to do during the migration?
There will be no downtime or disruptions when messaging is turned on at the account level, which will involve Zendesk selecting the Turn on messaging for your account checkbox in customer accounts.
If you are actively using Chat/Web Widget (Classic), you won’t see any other changes until an admin takes action to finalize the move to messaging.
If you aren’t using Chat/Web Widget (Classic), you will see an active/ ready-to-use (messaging) Web Widget created on your behalf. You will have the option to customize the Web Widget and install it in your help center or an active web page to begin using messaging. The messaging Web Widget will replace the Web Widget (Classic) on any web pages (aside from a Guide help center) where it’s embedded and not actively being used.
What do I need to do after the migration?
You will receive an in-product confirmation once messaging is turned on at the account level. At that point they will be encouraged to finalize the move by completing a series of optional configuration steps to make messaging live for individual brands.
If you are actively using Chat/Web Widget (Classic), when your account is converted to messaging, live chats will end and any in-progress tickets will remain pending. We recommend that you complete this step during an off-peak period, close out any active live chats, and take agents offline. Once completed, the Web Widget will change from Classic to messaging and the end user, agent and admin experience will change to messaging for that brand.
If you aren’t using Chat/ Web Widget (Classic), you will have the option to customize the Web Widget and embed it in your help center or website to start using messaging. As noted above, the Web Widget (Classic) will automatically be updated to the (messaging) Web Widget on any web pages where it’s not actively being used.
What if messaging isn’t right for me and I don’t want to migrate?
You’ll continue to have the option to turn messaging off and use legacy Chat and the Web Widget (Classic). If you’d prefer to complete the full setup yourself at a later date, just complete this form to let us know
What are the major parity gaps between live chat and messaging today?
Please refer to limitations in messaging functionality for details on features and functionality that are not currently available yet with messaging. Note that customers who have been targeted for messaging activation do not use any of these features currently, according to our records.
Are there any specific behaviors that are “different” from Chat and that I should be aware of when moving from Chat to messaging?
| Desired messaging functionality | New behavior |
| Shortcuts | There are no plans to bring “Chat shortcuts” as they’re known to Agent Workspace. All shortcuts should now be handled as macros. |
| Zopim App in Support |
There are no plans to replicate the Zopim app in Support as we believe our new Agent Workspace is the best way for agents to have a unified conversation with customers across any channel. Agents also have access to the notifier app to keep track of your messaging conversations. |
| Zopim Dashboard | There are no plans to replicate the Zopim Dashboard for messaging. This is because the majority of dashboard capabilities can be replicated through Explore. Customers should be educated towards this new way of consuming customer insights. |
| Form when offline | Because messaging can be asynchronous in nature, the way that follow up happens is no longer the same. Customers are encouraged to set expectations with your customers on typical response times; if no agents are available we recommend that admins set up the experience so that agents can re-engage with the customer on another channel such as email |
| Queuing & wait times | There is no notion of “queuing” in messaging. However, customers still do need ways to set appropriate expectations with wait times. This is currently being investigated by product |
What resources are available to help me move from Chat to messaging?
Help Center Documentation:
Content & Assets:
Webinars & Events:
- Community event: making the move to messaging
- Community event: deep dive on messaging
- Community event: Zendesk messaging Q&A
- Community event: getting to know Zendesk messaging
- Tips & Tricks: migrating from Chat to messaging
5 Comments
We are using a third-party chatbot, which has more functionalities than ZD bot. As it connects to the Chat, will it be affected?
If your bot only connects to Chat and you migrated to Messaging, this will definitely be affected. It will be better to coordinate with your bot provider to determine the best option.
Hi Dane,
Thank you for your reply. Then we will not migrate as it will be an added cost. It is a good thing that our ZD contract states we will have access to your Chat platform for the next 22 months. Where do I need to send the request to be excluded from migration during this period?
There is a link to the form on this article in the section What if messaging isn’t right for me and I don’t want to migrate?.
Please mention messaging conversations automatically go inactive after the enduser is idle for 10 minutes, and there's no setting to adjust or deactivate this. If the current conversation goes inactive, the agent is freed up to be assigned a new conversation. This can lead to an agent taking multiple conversations at a time despite capacity settings.
Although this is explained in this article, this is very important to point out as a difference between messaging and chat as it affects the agent workflow.
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