Live chat

Chat is part of the snippet you already installed. Nothing else to add.

1. Open your site in the dashboard, go to Settings, then Chat.
2. Tick Show the chat bubble, write a greeting, and save.
3. Visitors see the bubble on their next page load.

Answering. The Chat tab lists conversations. Open one and you get the exchange in the middle and the visitor's screen on the right, following them live while they type, so you can see what they are stuck on instead of asking them to describe it.

When you are away. You count as around for 90 seconds after you last looked at a conversation. Outside that, visitors see your away message and a field for their email. Set a notification address in Settings and we email you when a message arrives while nobody is watching, at most one per conversation every ten minutes.

Replying to someone who left. If they gave an email and have closed the tab, your reply is emailed to them. When they come back to your site the conversation picks up where it stopped.

On the recording. A conversation held during a visit appears as a Chat tab under the player and on the timeline, so you can rewatch the visit and read the exchange in step with it.

What is stored. The messages both sides typed, plus any name or email the visitor volunteered. Transcripts follow the plan's retention, are deleted with the recording, and go when the site goes. Nothing is read from the page to prefill them.