---
title: Using support chat
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

Support chat (sometimes called Live chat) allows customer care departments to provide help to their website visitors and answer their questions in real time.

## Setting up support chat

1. **Enable support chat** in **Settings -> Community -> Chat**.
2. Open the **Permissions** application and provide some users with the **Enter support** permission for **Chat**.
3. Place one of the following web parts on a page. We recommend to place one on the root page to make support chat available on all pages.
   - The **Chat support request** web part displays a button that the visitors can use to initiate chat with support personnel.
   - The **Initiated chat** web part provides a way for support personnel to start chatting with on-line visitors from the **On-line users** interface in the **Users** application.
   - The **Automatically initiated chat** web part automatically sends the visitor a message after a specified period of time.

You can now go on-line using the support chat toolbar. The toolbar notifies you about new messages and allows you to switch between active conversations.

> **Note:** **Using support chat with SSL**
>
> If you're using SSL on your websites, make sure you [configure WCF for SSL](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/configuring-kentico/configuring-windows-communication-foundation.md#configuringwindowscommunicationfoundation-ssl).

## Available support chat web parts

### Chat support request

Displays a control that visitors click to start chatting with a support person. In this case, the site visitor initiates the chat and the support person receives a notification in the user interface. See the Notifications page for details.

If no support person is on-line, the request will be sent by e-mail or won't be available at all. You can choose between these options in **Settings -> Community -> Chat -> Support chat**.

### Initiated chat

When you place this web part on a page, you will be able to start chat with visitors who are present on the page.

You will be able to chat only with registered users who are logged on. To do that, navigate to **Users -> On-line users** and click the **Initiate chat** button to start chatting with the user.

Please note that you need to enable the [on-line users](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/managing-users/monitoring-on-line-users.md) feature first.

### Automatically initiated chat

This web part automatically displays a predefined message to all visitors after a specified amount of time that they spend on a page. When the message appears, they have two options:

- Reply - opens the support chat window. The visitor can now reply to the message, which then lights up a notification for support personnel in the user interface.
- Close - closes the message without replying. This prevents the message from appearing again for an hour.

The message won't appear if no support person is on-line.

## Going on-line

To go on-line in support chat, you must have the **Enter support** permission for **Chat**. When you have the Enter support permission, you access support chat from the header.

1. Click the **Support chat** icon on the right side of the header.
2. Click **Go on-line**.

You are on-line in support chat. When a visitor sends their first message, the support chat icon shows a notification. Click the support chat icon to view active support chat requests.

> **Tip:** You can use [canned responses](https://docs.kentico.com/k8/community-features/chat/using-support-chat/working-with-canned-responses.md) to quickly insert commonly used text into your messages.