Add a chat widget to your website (Website chat)

Website chat puts a chat bubble on your website. Messages your visitors send arrive in the Inbox, and you answer them there or let your automations, flows, and the AI Agent answer. Website chat is included from the Starter plan. It is not part of the free trial.

Create the widget

1. In VivaDialog, owners and admins open Settings, go to Channels, find the Website chat card, and click Create a chat widget.
2. Under Name, enter a name for your own use, such as “Main website”. Visitors never see it.
3. Under Websites allowed to show it, enter each domain on its own line, without https:// or a path: for example example.com.
4. Click Save changes.

Domain rules:

• *.example.com covers every subdomain of example.com, but not example.com itself. Add both if you need both.
• localhost is allowed, so you can test on your own computer. IP addresses are not allowed.
• Leave out ports: example.com:8080 is refused.
• Up to 20 domains per widget.
• The page has to use https. Plain http works only on localhost.

The widget counts toward your plan’s channel limit, like a connected account. Conversations answered by your automations or AI count toward your monthly conversation quota, as on your other channels; replies you type yourself do not.

Add it to your website

Under Add it to your website, click Copy code and paste the code before </body> on every page where the bubble should show. The card also has short instructions for WordPress and Shopify. The short code always loads the latest version of the widget.

To load one exact version instead, open Pin one exact version (optional) and click Copy pinned code. That code points to a file that never changes and includes an integrity attribute (Subresource Integrity), so the browser refuses the file if it was altered. A pinned widget does not get new releases until you copy the new pinned code.

If your site uses a Content Security Policy, allow the widget script under script-src and the VivaDialog API under connect-src.

How it looks

• Colour: the colour of the bubble and buttons. The text on it switches between black and white by itself so it stays readable.
• Position: bottom right or bottom left.
• Language: the visitor’s browser language, or a fixed language (English, Indonesian, German, French, or Russian).
• Greeting: the first line visitors see, up to 300 characters. Left empty, the widget shows a standard greeting in the widget’s language.
• Privacy policy link (optional): a link to your own privacy policy, shown as “Privacy” in the widget. It must start with https.
• Shortcut cards: up to 4 cards under the greeting. A question card sends its text as the visitor’s message. A link card opens a web page in a new tab.

The widget’s footer shows “Powered by VivaDialog”.

In the Inbox

Each visitor shows as Website visitor: the widget never asks for a name. A conversation and a contact are created only once the visitor sends a message. If a flow asks for an email address or a phone number, the answer is saved on the contact.

You reply from the Inbox as on any other channel. The visitor sees your reply in the widget while the page is open, and finds the conversation again on a later visit from the same browser.

Automatic replies

• Automations and flows that apply to all channels also answer website visitors.
• The AI Agent answers website visitors only if you turn it on for Website chat.
• Automatic AI replies in Website chat always use VivaDialog’s AI and count toward your plan’s AI quota, even if you added your own AI key. See use your own AI key.

Limits that protect your quota

• Each widget accepts up to 2,000 messages a day (UTC). Past that, no visitor can write until 00:00 UTC.
• Each widget accepts up to 1,000 new chat sessions a day (UTC). Past that, new visitors cannot start a chat until 00:00 UTC; visitors who already have a chat can still write.
• When either limit is reached, the workspace owner gets an email.
• Automations and AI answer at most 20 messages from one visitor a day (UTC). After that, the visitor’s messages still arrive in the Inbox for your team.
• When a visitor sends the same text again within 60 seconds, it is not answered automatically a second time.
• A message with no letters or digits, such as only emoji or punctuation, is not answered automatically. It still arrives in the Inbox.
• Very fast bursts of requests from one visitor or one network are refused for a short time.
• A visitor message can be up to 2,000 characters.

Turn off or delete

• Turn the widget off hides it on every website. Its settings and conversations stay, and Turn the widget on brings it back. Sites stop showing it from the next page load.
• Delete widget removes it from every website that has the code, and visitors can no longer write. Conversations already in the Inbox stay.

Your visitors’ data

VivaDialog stores a random id for each visitor, not their IP address or browser details. A visitor who never sends a message is deleted after 7 days without activity. The visitor’s session token stays in their browser and stops working 90 days after it was last used; after that, the visitor starts a new chat. Conversations stay in your Inbox like those from other channels.

For your visitors’ data, your business is the controller and VivaDialog is the processor. Mention the chat in your own privacy policy and add the link under Privacy policy link (optional). What else your policy needs depends on the law that applies to you. See our Privacy Policy and Data Processing Agreement.

Website chat conversations are not available to AI apps connected through MCP, to the Public API, or to outgoing webhooks.