Live chat with your team

With live chat, someone from your team can join a conversation in the widget and reply to the visitor as themselves. The agent stays silent while they do, and answers again once they hand the chat back.

Live chat is off by default. When it is on for an agent and someone from your team is online, a visitor who asks for a person gets live chat. When nobody is online, the agent uses hand-off by email instead, if that is on. If neither is available, the agent doesn't offer a person.

How it works

1. A visitor asks to talk to a person, or the agent can't help and the visitor wants one. If the visitor asked, the agent asks your team to join straight away. If the agent suggests it itself, it asks the visitor first. It needs no email address or other details.
2. The agent tells the visitor that a team member has been asked to join and that they can keep chatting meanwhile. It never promises how soon, or who. Until someone joins, the agent keeps answering.
3. The chat appears under Waiting in the Live chat inbox. Someone from your team clicks Take over. From then on, the agent doesn't reply.
4. Your team member chats with the visitor from the inbox.
5. They click End live chat. The agent answers the visitor's next message again.

If hand-off by email is on as well, live chat comes first for a visitor who asks for a person. The agent offers the email hand-off only if the visitor would rather be contacted by email.

When someone counts as online

Someone is online when a person who can reply has the Live chat inbox open in a browser tab, or had it open in the last 2 minutes. While the inbox is open, it checks for new chats every 5 seconds, and that check is what keeps your account online.

• A tab in the background keeps checking for new chats every 30 seconds, so a desktop alert can still reach you. After 15 minutes in the background it stops checking. Your account then counts as online for up to 2 more minutes, so a forgotten tab stops telling visitors someone is there after about 17 minutes. When you return to the tab, it starts checking again right away.
• Online is for the whole account. One person with the inbox open is enough: every agent in the account with live chat on then offers it.
• Only people who can reply count. A viewer with the inbox open doesn't make the account online. See Who can do what.
• Having another part of the dashboard open doesn't count, and neither does the sidebar badge.

While you're online, the bar at the top of the inbox says "You're online. While this page is open, visitors on agents with Live chat on can ask for a person."

Turn it on

1. Open your agent and go to the Setup tab.
2. Under Live chat, below Hand-off to your team, switch on Offer live chat when someone from the team is online. It saves at once, without Save changes.
3. To ask visitors for a rating afterwards, switch on Ask visitors to rate the live chat when it ends (CSAT). It is off by default and saves at once too.
4. So visitors still reach your team when nobody is online, switch on Offer hand-off by email under Hand-off to your team and click Save changes. Without it, the card notes that the agent won't offer a person when nobody is online.
5. Click Live chat in the sidebar and keep that page open in a tab.
6. Test it from your site or the agent's direct link, in another browser window: ask to talk to a person. The Playground doesn't show live chat.

While live chat is on, the card says whether someone from your team was online when the page loaded.

What the visitor sees

The widget shows a status line under the chat while a person is involved. In English:

These lines, and the rating below, appear in English, German, French, Italian or Spanish, following the Widget language on the Appearance tab. Your team member's name and replies are shown exactly as typed.

• The name is the first word of the person's profile name, up to 40 characters, for example "Anna" for "Anna Weber". Someone without a name in their profile appears as "Team". Set your name under Settings, Account.
• The replies appear in the chat with the person's first name above them. They are plain text, exactly as typed: line breaks are kept and http:// or https:// links can be clicked, but nothing is formatted, so *bold* shows with its asterisks.
• The visitor keeps writing in the same chat box. Their messages go to your team member, and the agent doesn't answer them.
• After the live chat, the agent answers again. It knows what your team member wrote and treats it as part of the conversation.

The rating

If Ask visitors to rate the live chat when it ends (CSAT) is on, the visitor sees "How was your chat with Anna?" under the chat once your team member hands it back, with five stars, an optional comment box ("Anything you'd like to add? (optional)", up to 1,000 characters) and Send. After sending, they see "Thanks for your feedback!".

• One rating per conversation. The first one stands.
• The rating disappears once the visitor sends another message.
• It is saved with the conversation. See Afterwards.

When nobody joins in time

A request that nobody takes over within 5 minutes lapses:

• It leaves the Waiting list in the inbox. An editor can no longer take it over. The owner or an admin still can, under the rules for chats nobody asked a person for.
• If the visitor still has the chat open in a visible tab, the status line changes to "Nobody from the team could join right now. The AI assistant is still here to help."
• With the visitor's next message, the agent starts its reply by saying that nobody from the team could join right now. If hand-off by email is on, it offers to pass the conversation on by email. If not, it doesn't promise that anyone will contact them.
• The visitor can ask for a person again later. If someone is online then, that is a new request.

The Live chat inbox

Click Live chat in the sidebar. The inbox covers every agent in your account. On the left are two lists:

• Waiting: chats where a visitor asked for a person in the last 5 minutes, on agents that have live chat on. Each shows the agent's name, how long ago the visitor asked and their last message.
• Active: chats someone from your team is answering, with "Answered by" and their first name. A live chat stays here even if live chat is switched off for its agent meanwhile, so no visitor is left mid-chat.

Click a chat to open it on the right. You see the latest 100 messages, labelled "Visitor", "AI" or the team member's name followed by "(team)". Full transcript opens the conversation on the agent's Conversations tab.

The Live chat item in the sidebar has a badge with the number of waiting chats. Outside the inbox, it refreshes every 30 seconds while the dashboard tab is visible, and only while an agent in your account has live chat on.

Sound and desktop alerts

When a new chat starts waiting while the inbox is open, the inbox can tell you in two ways:

• Sound on plays a short chime. It is on by default. Click it to switch to Sound off. The choice is remembered in that browser.
• Turn on desktop alerts asks your browser for permission to show notifications. Once you allow it, the bar shows Desktop alerts on. When the inbox tab is in the background or the window isn't focused, a notification says "A visitor is waiting for a person", with the agent's name and the visitor's last message. Click it to open the chat. If you blocked notifications, the bar shows Desktop alerts blocked: allow them for this site in your browser's settings.

Alerts are only for new waiting chats. Chats that were already waiting when you opened the inbox don't alert, and neither do new messages in a chat you're answering.

Take over

Open a waiting chat and click Take over. The status changes to You're answering, and the agent stops replying from the visitor's next message.

Summary so far appears above the messages: 3 to 5 points in English, written by AI when you took over, with what the visitor wants, what the agent already answered and any contact details or order numbers they gave. If the summary can't be written in time, the inbox says "No summary this time: read the messages below."

If two people click Take over at the same moment, one of them gets the chat. The other sees who is already answering it.

Reply

Write in the box under the messages. Enter sends, and Shift+Enter adds a line. A message can be up to 4,000 characters, and a counter appears when fewer than 500 are left.

• Draft with AI writes a draft answer to the visitor's latest message into the box. It uses the agent's instructions and guardrails and the knowledge the agent would find for that message, and writes in the visitor's language. When your knowledge doesn't cover the question, the draft says you'll check rather than guessing.
• Improve my text corrects the spelling, grammar and punctuation of what you wrote and makes it clear and friendly. It keeps your meaning, facts, names, numbers, links and language.

Neither sends anything: check the text and click Send. Together they can be used 30 times an hour per person. Drafts, improvements and the summary don't use your plan's messages.

End live chat

Click End live chat when you're done. The status changes to Handed back to the AI, the visitor sees that you left the chat, and the agent answers their next message again. If ratings are on, the visitor is asked for one.

Only a chat someone took over can be ended. A waiting chat can't be dismissed: take it over first, or it lapses after 5 minutes.

A live chat doesn't end by itself. It stays under Active until someone ends it, even after the visitor has left.

Take over a recent chat from Conversations

The owner and admins can also take over a chat in which the visitor didn't ask for a person. This works when:

• live chat is on for the agent;
• the visitor wrote a message in the last 30 minutes;
• the chat isn't already waiting or being answered.

Open the conversation on the agent's Conversations tab and click Take over in the transcript header. The Live chat inbox opens with the chat, and you continue there as with any other.

On an agent with live chat on, the visitor's chat window checks for a takeover every 20 seconds for 30 minutes after their last message, while it is open in a visible tab. So the visitor sees "Anna joined the chat" up to 20 seconds after you take over, and your replies from then on.

• If their tab is in the background, they see it as soon as they return to it, as long as that is within 30 minutes of their last message.
• After that, or if they closed the chat, they see it with their next message or when they reload the page. Their next message goes to you, not to the agent.

Who can do what

• Stepping in. When the owner or an admin replies in a chat a colleague is answering, they become the person answering. The visitor sees their name from then on. Above the reply box, the inbox warns first, for example "Anna is answering this chat. Sending a reply takes it over from them." Ending a colleague's chat doesn't need a reply first.
• An editor can't take a chat from a colleague. A chat someone else is answering shows "Anna is answering this chat. Only they, an admin or the owner can reply."
• A viewer sees the inbox as read-only: "Read-only: you can follow live chats here. Taking over and replying needs the Editor role or above."

See Team members and roles.

The agent while a person answers

• From the takeover until End live chat, the agent writes nothing. The visitor's messages are saved in the conversation as usual, files included.
• Those visitor messages don't use your plan's messages, and neither do your team member's replies, the summary or the AI drafts. They don't count toward the agent's monthly message cap either. See Plans and limits.
• The per-visitor message limit and blocked countries still apply to the visitor's messages.
• While the team has been asked to join and nobody has yet, the agent keeps answering. Those messages count as usual.

Afterwards: transcripts, export and stats

• Transcript. On the Conversations tab, each reply your team member wrote shows their first name and "· team, live chat" above it, as plain text exactly as typed. The transcript header has a Live chat badge, or Waiting for a person or Live now with an Open in Live chat link while the chat is live. A rated chat shows the rating, for example 4/5; hover over it to read the visitor's comment. See Conversations and stats.
• CSV export. The Role column says "Team member" for these replies, and the Author column has the team member's first name. See Export chat logs.
• Dashboard. Under Outcomes, the Live chat card shows Live chats (chats someone took over in the period, counted by when they took over), Average rating and Ratings, each against the previous period. It appears once an agent has live chat on. See Outcomes.

Webhooks and Slack

When the agent asks your team to join, intoCHAT sends the live_chat.requested event to your webhooks that subscribe to Live chat requested. It is sent once per request, whether or not anyone joins. Its data:

If Slack alerts are connected with Live chat request ticked, a message goes to your Slack channel: "A visitor wants to chat with a person" on the agent, with the visitor's country and page when known, their last message, a Take it in the Live chat inbox link and a link to the conversation.

New webhooks and new Slack connections have the event ticked. A webhook or Slack connection you saved earlier keeps its events: click Edit on the webhook, or tick Live chat request in the Slack card, and save.

Live chat requests aren't emailed. Your team hears about them in the inbox, in Slack or through webhooks.

Limits

• Not instant. Nothing is pushed: the widget checks for your replies every 3 seconds, and the inbox checks for new chats and messages every 5 seconds. Messages can take a few seconds to arrive. Before anyone is involved, on an agent with live chat on, the widget checks every 20 seconds for 30 minutes after the visitor's last message, so a takeover nobody asked for can take up to 20 seconds to show. The widget checks only while the visitor's tab is visible, and catches up as soon as they return to it.
• No typing indicator and no read receipts.
• Text only from your team. Your team members can't send files, images, buttons, forms or formatted text.
• Visitor files sent during a live chat are saved with the conversation, but the Live chat inbox doesn't show them. Open Full transcript to see them.
• No routing or assignment rules. Everyone in the account sees every waiting chat, and whoever takes it over first answers it. There are no queues per agent or per person.
• No shifts or offline hours. Online only means the inbox is open in a tab, as described above.
• No alert for new messages in a chat you're answering. Alerts are for new waiting chats only, and only while the inbox is open.
• No automatic end. A live chat stays active until someone clicks End live chat.
• The Playground doesn't show live chat. The agent never offers it there. Test from your site or the direct link.
• Temporary chats never request live chat, because nothing in them is saved.
• One rating per conversation, and only until the visitor writes again.
• The inbox lists up to 100 chats at a time and opens a chat on its latest 100 messages.
• The summary is always in English. The inbox, like the rest of the dashboard, is in English.

Next steps

• Set up the fallback for when nobody is online: Hand-off by email.
• Send live chat requests to your own systems: Webhooks.
• Decide who can answer: Team members and roles.