---
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 roles with the **Enter support** permission for **Chat**.
3. Place one of the following web parts on a page. We recommend to place the web part on the master 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. If the visitor replies, a notification appears in the administration interface.

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/k9/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.

You can set up forwarding support requests to email in **Settings -> Community -> Chat -> Support chat**. If you don't enter any email address into the **Send support messages to this email address** setting and no support person is online, support chat is not available for site visitors.

### Initiated chat

When you place this web part on a page, you can start chat with visitors who are on the page. Please note that you need to enable the [on-line users](https://docs.kentico.com/k9/managing-users/monitoring-on-line-users.md) feature first.

You can chat only with registered users who are logged on. To initiate chat with a user, navigate to **Users -> On-line users** and click **Initiate chat**.

### Automatically initiated chat

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

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

The message doesn'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 system header at the top.

1. Click the **Support chat** icon in the top right corner of the screen.
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/k9/community-features/chat/using-support-chat/working-with-canned-responses.md) to quickly insert commonly used text into your messages.