Live chat
Two kinds of inbox, same tools:
| Inbox | Who answers | Where visitors see the chat bubble |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Super Admins | The marketing site (pricing, demos, sales questions) |
| School | That school's School Admins | The school's public website, and in-app for its parents and students ("Chat with school") |
Chats never cross inboxes: a school only ever sees its own conversations.
Answering chats
Open Live chat in the sidebar. The badge shows how many conversations have unread messages.
- The left column lists open chats (switch to Closed or All, or search by name, email or topic). A green dot means the visitor is still on the page.
- The thread shows the visitor's name, email, phone, the page they started from and whether they are
typing. Type
/to pick a saved reply. - The first agent to reply takes the chat (their name shows in the list, so colleagues know it's handled). Close it when done (the visitor can reopen it by writing again), or Email transcript to send the whole conversation to the visitor.
- Visitors can rate the chat when it closes; ratings show in the list.
- The Available / Away switch controls whether you count as online. Leaving the page also takes you offline after a minute or so.
The console checks for new messages every few seconds, and the sidebar badge updates on every page, so nothing extra has to run on the server — it works on ordinary shared hosting.
When nobody is online
If no agent is available (or it's outside opening hours), the bubble shows your away message and asks for the visitor's email. The message still arrives in the inbox, and — if Email admins about new chats when nobody is online is on — every agent gets an email with the message and a link. Your reply is emailed to the visitor if they've left the page.
Settings
Live chat → Settings (each inbox has its own):
- Show the chat button to visitors — on or off everywhere for this inbox.
- Title, welcome message, away message.
- Ask for an email address (needed to reply when you're away) and also ask for a phone number.
- Button position — bottom right or bottom left.
- Opening hours — optionally show as online only during set hours per weekday (server time).
- Email admins about new chats when nobody is online.
- Saved replies — a title, a
/shortcutand the text. Add as many as you like. - Embed code — a one-line script to put the same chat bubble on another website (a WordPress site, for example).
Privacy and abuse protection
- Each conversation is reachable only with a random 48-character token stored in the visitor's browser; signed-in users' chats are also tied to their account.
- Starting chats and sending messages are rate-limited per network, and a hidden honeypot field stops simple spam bots.
- Agents' actions require a valid session and CSRF token.
In the demo
The demo resets every night with a couple of open and closed conversations and a set of saved replies
in both the platform and Riverside Academy inboxes, so visitors can try both sides: chat from the
school website in one browser and answer as admin@riverside.ac.ke in another.